


Reverie

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Not Related, Resistance is Futile, Reylo - Freeform, Shameless Smut, Until proven otherwise, alright im done with tags, because you know you like it, shhhhh, start loving, stop hating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-05-11 01:13:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 63,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5608165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was just a girl with a murky past and an equally murky future. Only a scavenger, left on a desolate planet filled with starship carcasses and sand. He was a Knight of Ren, torn between the Dark and the Light, struggling to exalt himself to the standards of his deceased grandfather. She wants answers; he has them. In order to find what she seeks, she must step into the shadows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I had to. I'm not sorry, so far from sorry. Enjoy and let me know what you think! Or don't, I'm not your boss.
> 
> And for clarification purposes, the story starts off in Takodana where it follows the film's dialogue. The first and second chapter will be mostly things you've already seen and heard. I'm only trying to set a foundation before braiding in my intentions. Chapter 3 and on, will be my own interpretations. My apologies for any confusion.

So much had happened since Rey rescued the little droid from Teedo. She didn't know where to begin explaining had anyone asked why she was currently on planet Takodana, submersed in a medley of species, sounds, smells, and languages she never knew existed.

But here she was, cramming her face with food while Han, Finn, BB-8 and Maz Kanata discussed how to get the droid back to the Resistance and quietly.

What would _she_ consider the beginning?

Perhaps, it was when she walked the astromech to the Niima outpost. A couple of ruffians caught sight of the little orange and white droid, attempting to swindle BB-8 for parts in trade. Of course, she wasn't having that. BB-8 was amidst a classified mission. The least she could do was see him out.

Or was it when the droid spotted the man in his master's flight jacket?

The little droid declared in a series of angry chirrs and beeps that he had stolen his master's jacket. So of course, staff in hand with justice in bound, Rey pursued the thief and after a couple of whacks on her part, and zaps on BB-8's part, they finally got some answers.

A Resistance soldier, he explained. Finn, he later told them his name was.

Or was it obtaining the Millennium Falcon, being hijacked by Han Solo and Chewbacca, fighting more ruffians, and fleeing savage rathtars immediately afterwards?

Rey wasn't sure. The story would come to an end once BB-8 reached the Resistance and from there, she'd return to the sandy graveyard of Jakku.

She ordered a plate of food and had been eating as Han and Maz discussed a plan of action. Her awareness of the conversation came and went, too occupied by the pile of food before her. She chewed, barely giving herself enough time to choke down the morsel before she readied for another bite.

"You've been fighting for too long!" Maz pleaded. " _Go home!_ "

"Please," Finn added from Rey's left. "We came here for your help."

Rey's ears perked up at the mention of a fight. She swallowed her mouthful and looked to Maz, the owner of the castle they dwelled within.

"What fight?"

Maz regarded her almost incredulously. "The _only_ fight," she paused, "Against the Darkside. Through the ages, I've seen evil take many forms. The Sith, the Empire. Today, it is the First Order. Their shadow's spreading across the galaxy. You must face them. Fight them. _All_ of us."

Finn, who had fallen silent, suddenly loomed forward, sullened with determination. "There is no fight against the First Order. Not one we can win." He spat. "Look around. There is no chance we haven't been recognized already. I bet the First Orders on their way right now…," his voice trailed off, "What are you doing?" He held his gaze onto Maz who suddenly eyed him suspiciously . She rose from her chair, propping her elbows onto the table and adjusting the focus of her goggles. The adjustment magnetized her once beady eyes into large black pools. They blinked slowly.

Finn glanced about. "What is this?"

Maz got onto the table, knocking cups and tableware from her path as she headed straight for Finn. He leaned back in his chair. "Solo?" He tried whispering as she neared, turning his head but refusing to take his eyes off of Maz Kanata. "What is she doing?"

The pilot shrugged, "Don't know. But it ain't good."

Maz was now directly before Finn, putting him beneath heavy scrutiny. "If you live long enough," she began, taking slow inspection of Finn, "You see the same eyes in different people. I'm looking at the eyes of a man who wants to run."

Her diagnosis left Finn straight-faced and rigid. Slowly, he leaned forward, closing the gap between the two in sheer defiance and in a low voice, barely audible for Rey who sat right next to him, said, "You don't know a thing about me. Where I'm from. What I've seen. You don't know the First Order like I do. They'll slaughter us." He paused to take in an unsteady breath. "We all need to run."

Maz narrowed her large eyes as she considered his words.

"Hmmph," she grunted, withdrawing back to her chair.

Rey listened quietly, shifting her gaze from Finn, to Han, to Maz and back to Finn.

"You see those two?" Maz pointed to a pair of patrons on the far side of the watering hole. A Quarren alien dressed in all red sat next to another species she did not immediately recognize. "They exchange work for transportation to the outer rim. There, you can disappear."

Rey leveled her gaze to Finn who watched the pair from his seat with evident contemplation. She felt her jaw clench and hope he wasn't sure enough to take the offer. She needed him right now. Their mission wasn't over. BB-8 hadn't been handed over to General Organa of the Resistance. He was just as much a part of this as she.

"Finn," Rey barked, eyeing him with a furrowed brow.

He shot her a glance and leaned in. "Come with me."

She almost flinched at the proposition, evidently disinclined.

"What about BB-8?" She glanced down at the orange and white sphere that stared back. "We're not done yet. We have to get him back to _your_ base."

The droid chirped and churred, shaking its head left and right about its pivot point.

He held her gaze, appearing exhausted.

"I can't," Finn admitted with a soft sigh.

Standing at once, he handed over the borrowed blaster to Han, who regarded it with indifference.

"Keep it kid," said Han.

Rey felt her face flush hot as the knit in her brow furthered. She was stunned to see him so quick to abandon something as important as this. They had collided by chance on planet Jakku with BB-8, dragged across the stars together, and now…, he wished to desert her with a droid that had brought them together in the first place.

Finn gave her a parting glance before striding across Maz Kanata's tavern.

She glanced at the droid and back at the retreating frame of Finn. Her anger grew, heating her chest now and curling her fingers over the armrest of her chair. She stood up, knocking the chair back, and marched across the room where Finn now exchanged offerings to the crimson-clad Quarren and his partner.

Pulling up next to him, Rey hissed. "What are you doing?"

He looked up at her, then back to the creatures at the table. "Don't leave without me," he said before standing and following Rey a few steps aside.

"You can't just go. I won't let you." She demanded.

Finn respired. "I'm not who you think I am."

"Finn, what are you talking about?" Rey spat, growing impatient.

"I'm not in the Resistance!" He nearly shouted, "I'm not a hero." He blinked as the next words struggled to form, "I'm a Stormtrooper. Like all of them, I was taken from a family I will never know." He continued, "And raised to do one thing."

Rey squeezed his hands. She didn't want him to go. It didn't matter that he was a Stormtrooper. There was good in him. She felt it. In the back of her mind, she remembered the promise they, together, made for BB-8. Had he suddenly forgotten?

"My first battle, I made a choice. I wasn't going to kill for them. So I ran, right into you. You looked at me like no one ever had. I wasn't ashamed of who I was."

He glanced down at her hands, squeezing him so tightly she shook and her knuckles bore white.

"But I'm done with the First order." He met her eyes again. "I'm never going back."

He stepped closer. "Rey, _come with me._ "

In the flurry of information, only one thing was important to her and that was the mission; getting BB-8 back to the Resistance. But Finn had been there from the start. She wanted to see him there to the end.

"Don't go," she steadily replied.

He offered a solemn smile and muttered,  "Take care of yourself. Please."

She watched him pull his hands away and turn towards the creatures awaiting by the door. As he neared, one pushed the door open, flooding Maz's dim tavern in a blind light. Their figures disappeared as the door slid shut.

Rey remained, staring at the close door. She willed him to come back. She willed it. But the door remained shut. All her life she had been deserted. By her family and now, her friend. Her only friend.

She was a little girl again, left on the sand dunes of Jakku. Now, she was a woman, left on the sandy beaches of Takodana to traverse the stars with an orange and white droid.

There was a pulse.

 _Only your heart_ , she told herself.

But her head began to turn as the sound of her cries so long ago, pleading for the ship to return and retrieve her.

" _No!_ " Her tiny voice had screamed, lunging forward as the ship took off. A man behind her held her tiny arm, keeping her from racing up the dunes.

But the scream was not in her head. It was in the tavern.

She spun around, glancing about the sea of patrons as the echo waned. Around her, no one seemed to react to the sound. She continued to push passed the bodies, elbowing them out of her path until she reached a landing of stairs that spiral down. The scream came again, drowning to a mute into the shadows downward.

 _Go_ , she told herself.

A foot edged out, stepping down onto the first step.

The sound seemed to intensify, bouncing off the stone walls.

Again, Rey glanced over her shoulder to see if she were the only one experiencing the phenomenon. Not a soul regarded her.

She turned back and began taking the stairs down. BB-8 following suit.

They were winding, but did not delve far. She reached the bottom to find a quiet corridor, devoid of the hustle and bustle that above garnered.

The cry came again, louder and closer, sending chills to race up her arms and down her spine. She set her jaw and proceeded towards the province.

This noise _is_ a memory. She reminded herself as she neared.

At the very end, on the left, she was sure to find a child caught in a cell, but as she came within proximity, a red light just to the side of the entrance flashed white. The door rose on its own, revealing an even darker space. But there was no child.

She pushed further, passing the threshold of the dusty and neglected room. She glanced left and right, up and down, searching for the source of the cries.

Instead, she found a chest.

Something within her knew the answers were there, just beneath the lid.

Kneeling before it, Rey reached up and lifted the chest open.

When she peeked inside, the hilt of a lightsaber awaited her. Its metal body refracted a glint of the dim light above her.

And eagerness took over her, a yearning she couldn't qualm rose her arm and she grasped it with haste.

_There was a startling sound, a shriek that splintered through her mind, causing Rey to yelp in surprise. She let go of the hilt and stood just as the lights within the cell went out._

_BB-8 was gone. The cell was gone. The golden light that she resided in was replaced with cold blue as corridors upon corridors unfolded before her left and her right. She stood, moving forwards as the lights continued to unravel._

_Then there was a great shudder that pitched the world off its axis, she fell forward as the corridors burst into smoldering ash, sending her face first into dirt. She rolled to a stop as the sky opened up and fell down a terrible rain._

_The echo of her childhood screams drifted on the violent wind that scoured her frame. A cloaked figure knelt before her; a mechanical hand rested on a droid next to them._

_At once, the sky released a burst of lightening, alerting Rey of a man approaching from behind. He was trying to run, but an emission of terror ripped through his mouth just as the shaft of crimson light tore through his sternum. He sagged against the crackling weapon before it yanked itself free and slumped down into the mud next to her; dead._

_She quickly stood, spotting several figures cloaked in black before her. The rain cascaded down, flickering flashes of lightning against their forms. The only one wielding a lightsaber stepped forward, a hand outstretched, just as scream erupted from behind her._

_She was back on Jakku._

_Blinding by the sudden burst of light when she spun around. The tiny cries splintered through her head as she looked down at the little girl she was once, so long ago._

_Little Rey, knee-deep in sand, spilling with tears and cries that resonated across the sandy dunes._

_"No!" Her tiny voice begged, "Come back! Come back!"_

_Rey spun around to see the departing ship head into a crimson sky. A star, it appeared, began to grow, swallowing the blue planes in a snuffing darkness until,_

_Everything felt quiet and a chill bit into her frame._

_Snow all around her. Panic rising in her chest._

_She turned and ran, halting at once as the same erratic and untamed lightsaber, wielded by a shadow itself loomed out from behind the trees._

_She scrambled back, losing her footing until she pratfell._

And she was back into Takodana, back in Maz Kanata's Castle, in the corridor where the cries lured her.

The screams. The voices that ricocheted around her head, the stone walls, the depleting impression of fear and confusion fading into nothing but a memory.

She was back in the corridor, staring into the very cell she found the saber.

She felt a presence to her left and shot a glance.

Maz.

As if waiting for Rey to realize her arrival, she began walking towards her.

"What was that?" Rey panted, attempting to rein in the bewilderment.

But before Maz could explain, Rey stood. "I shouldn't have gone in there," she admitted, tears burning her eyes.

"That lightsaber was Luke's," Maz seemed just as breathless as Rey. "And his father's before him, and now it calls to you."

"I have to get back to Jakku," Rey explained suddenly.

Jakku, with the familiar swells of sand and brazen sun. Jakku, where she had waited so many years for her family. The visions. That's what they were, pleading for her return. Her family must be back. She had to get back to Jakku as soon as possible.

Maz nodded, removing her glasses. "Han told me." She offered a small hand for Rey, who took it without second thought and knelt before the pirate, Maz.

"Dear child," she whispered solemnly. "I see your eyes. You already know the truth. Whomever you're waiting for back in Jakku, they're _never_ coming back."

The air in Rey's lungs depleted, replacing it with stark, empty despair. The image of Maz before her waned as her eyes welled with burning tears. Rey clenched her jaw and tried working to breathe around the knot forming in her throat. She had lied to herself for so long. She had made a promise to herself for so long. But in truth, Maz was right and Rey knew this, and for so long. But she kept going, kept wishing, waiting for their return. But like Finn, they had left her.

"But I know someone who could." Maz's voice said gently, watching Rey's tears race down her flushed cheeks.

Rey glanced up, feeling the answer more than really understanding it. "Luke," she whispered back.

The last Jedi in the galaxy. The First Order had scoured every corner of the stars in search of the Jedi's, slaying them as they came and pushing forward to the destroy the rest. But one managed to stay hidden; Master Luke Skywalker. The Empire was becoming frantic in search. BB-8, the little droid she found on Jakku, had the missing piece to the puzzle. Its coordinates, once surrendered to the Resistance, would lead them to Luke.

Luke had the answers.

Maz nodded, "The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead." She smiled, assuaging the suffocating pain that had wrapped around Rey's heart. "I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes." Maz did, almost revelling in the sense of the Force that surrounded the pair. "Feel it, the Light. It's always been there. It will guide you." She opened her eyes and leveled her gaze onto Rey. "The saber, take it!"

The mere mention of the blasted thing reminded Rey of the rabid man wielding the lightsaber. It flooded her head with the sound her own screams as her family deserted her on Jakku. It brought her back to the place in the cell where bodies littered the muddy earth and the dark figures stood before her. Those monsters she had never seen before. She knew forthwith if she were to obtain the lightsaber, she would see them again.

Her heart wrenched in pain as the sheer thought, repulsed that such an object was a magnet to disaster and grief.

She stood at once, snapping out of the hypnosis Maz had induced by mentioning the Force like an intimate partner or lucid poem.

"I'm never touching that thing again," she snarled, "I don't want any part of this."

She strode passed Maz and headed for the stairs.

And she ran.

She ran until the castle disappeared and the trees outnumbered her rapid heartbeat. She ran until the canopy thickened and only sound that emitted was her soft pants and staggering footfalls. She was tired, distressed, and once again, isolated. All these things were swallowing her whole and still, _still_ , she sought solace at the thought of returning to Jakku, to await her family, who she knew would never return.

She was nearly about to slump down upon a rock to catch her breath when the proverbial chirp and chirr of BB-8 spun her around. He gave her an inquisitive beep!

Rey sighed, relieved that it was only the little round droid. "What are you doing?" She reprimanded the bot.

He replied with a chirp of worry and she ignored it.

"You have to go back." She approached BB-8 as it prodded on her current transgression. "I'm leaving," she told it. "You have to go back. You're too important. They'll help you."

Then, in the distance was startling sound, an amorphous screaming and it was getting louder and closer. She glanced up towards a break in the canopy in time to see a formation of TIE fighters tearing through the clear sky, followed by several assault ships.

Her stomach dropped and her breath hitched. She glanced back at the droid as the panic rose. She had to warn the others; Han, Chewie, and Maz. The Resistance had somehow discovered their location. How far had she run? How long would it take for her to get back? Could she even make it in time?

Instead of drowning in the inquisitions of her worry, Rey ran.

By the time she had arrived, the castle was already under attack. Chucks of the architect fell in heaps to the ground, smoldering debris exploded under the impact, and towers of the structure crumpled and fell.

Chattering on Rey's right diverted her attention as a command shuttle came in on an approach landing. She spotted a Stormtrooper with his back facing her. She reached back, tugging free the blaster secured at the small of her back. (Han had generously supplied the weaponry when they landed on Takodana.) She aimed the weapon, aware of the tremor her stance possessed, and pulled the trigger.

She missed the first shot, alerting the Stormtrooper who immediately signaled his position via radio. She pulled the trigger a second time, but it failed to fire. After a quick fiddling, Rey lifted the weapon a second time and fired.

This time, a connection was made, sending him sprawling back against a rock wall. The sounds of blaster fire whizzing passed her head alerted Rey, more were in pursuit. She fired several more shots in their general direction before turning and running towards the thicket.

As she fled, the blasts against the castle resonated like pulses. Every impact hummed through her. She ran faster, pumping her legs against the Takodana earth until she knew her lungs would burst. BB-8 was on her six and every so often, Rey stopped to fire into the Stormtroopers pursuing them. Once they were all cleared, she knelt beside the droid.

"You have to keep going," she panted. "Try to stay out of sight."

She stepped around BB-8 as he rolled onward. He squealed a series of chirps in her direction before disappearing into the foreign grove.

Even from her distance, Rey could still feel the battle as if the onslaught occurred around her. The blasts. The explosions. The volley of fire and destruction. It surrounded her like vibrations or an ache she couldn't dull. She was heading back. She had to. She had to help Han, Chewie and Maz fight, not idle by in the shadows of the forest.

With a fleeting glance towards the direction that BB-8 had fled, Rey adjusted her grip on the blaster and headed towards the chaos.

She hadn't gotten far from the moment she sent BB-8 off alone when a sense came over her.

She felt him before she saw him. Like waves of white-hot energy, something so powerful it made Rey woozy.

The torrents of energy, still foreign and unwarranted, felt like an iron hold that encompassed her, squeezing the warmth and life from her body. He was near, the man from her vision. She knew it. He felt black as pitch, looming like a shadow and tangible fear. Her eyes darted through the grove as the crackle and roaring of the untameable saber resonated through the dense forest like an explosion. She couldn't pinpoint the provenance and this only heightened her hysteria. Perhaps he was a ghost, a manifestation of her darkest fear. A nightmare incarnate, unseen by all, but apprehended by only she.

Rey stopped short, pressing against a tree for cover. Still, she could not find him, though her eyes eagerly scoured every branch, tree, and fern. He was everywhere. A shadow she could not escape. His lightsaber, sputtering and spitting like a wildfire somewhere within proximity.

She swallowed thickly. Though she tried to control it, her breath expelled raggedly. She had her blaster ready. She wasn't afraid to kill another. Pushing off the tree, she progressed further into the thicket, readying her firearm in case of an ambush or any sudden movement. She could still feel him. And somewhere deep within her, it seemed he could feel her as well. Like staring into a dark abyss and feeling unseen eyes looking back.

She locked her elbow, frantically turning and spinning as the sound of him seemed to echo all around her.

 _Then the light_.

The red, cracking light emerged through the rock and in a fit of panic and an audible gasp, Rey pulled the trigger until the gun jammed. The shots were deflected and he continued, dripping in black, obscured by a mask. The front of the mask was metal and the rest, black as carbon with a slitted forehead and muzzle that resembled a thick snout.

His breath was distorted. His hate was medley of determination and spite, coming off in torrents of heat, of waves that nearly inhibited her movements and flooded her thoughts with confusion.

He stepped out from a break of trees, stalking her with predatory resolve.

She shot so many times, each trigger pull resulted in a sparking deflection that scattered about the rugged terrain that surrounded them. The hum of the saber neared and Rey could not continue backing away as the hunt came within arms reach.

To her left was a path upward and out of the fissure she had found herself in. She scampered up the side of the earth, slipping between jagged rocks as the saber hummed against the humid air.

He followed and she continued to send volleys of fire his direction, but it was futile. Ever blast had been countered.

And suddenly, the hunt cease and she found herself invalid. She couldn't move. Her arm had snapped downward as a pulse in the atmosphere struck her like a solid wind, seizing her movement and function. Her eyes pinned her assailant. He had jutted a hand forward, fingers curled like a claw.

Her heart kick started into a manic percussion , spinning her mind in a flurry of panic-laden thoughts. She was paralyzed. Not by fear, but by the Force.

Rey tried to glance down, to see if perhaps she was hung up on something, but she found she couldn't even turn her head. She yanked, but little admission was warranted. She squirmed, but her body didn't not move and now,

He was upon her.

"The girl I've heard so much about." The voice came, mechanical and cold. He stepped closer, giving her a look over before slowly sauntering behind her. She lost sight of him, quickening her breath. "The droid." He stated.

She heard the swinging of the saber slicing through the air and suddenly, it hovered over her shoulder, blinding her with its crimson light. It was too close, any closer and it would singe her skin.

"Where is it?" He asked from behind.

Unable to speak and even if she had the capability, Rey knew not to tell him its whereabouts. He lowered his saber and moved around until he faced her again. His gloved hand rose until it nearly brushed her face.

And then, pain.

A sharp stabbing seared through her, tearing through her veins, digging into the threads of her muscles. It stole the breath from her lungs, halting a bubbling scream in her throat. Rey felt her blood surge. She cringed, knowing if she could emit a sound, she would. She squeezed her eyes shut instead and staunched through the pain.

"The map," he whispered like a gentle reminder, "You've seen it."

The pain vanished. An exhale, previously locked in her throat, punched free as it did, but the pressure upon her remained. It grew, probing passed her, stirring into her thoughts, her memories.

 _He_ was in her. In her mind, sifting through her memories, seeing what she had collected over the course of life.

"Sir!" A voice across the grove called, snapping him out of his sadistic play. He pulled away, stepping around her, though she was still locked in place. "The Resistance fighters. We need more troops."

"Pull the division out." He ordered. "Forget the droid. We have what we need."

And everything went dark.

As the silence took hold, encompassing Rey in quiet comfort. She wondered again.

_Where did all it begin?_


	2. Chapter 2

 

Rey woke with a jolt and a wave of fresh panic. She could feel the metal pressed against her backside, her calves, shoulders and arms. She was fashioned to a chair amidst a circular room of panels, harsh lights and the soft purring of computers at work.

Her wrist were bound. Her ankles were too, but she tugged anyway. Her hands were rather small, perhaps…

She yanked upward, feeling the metal restraints bite into her skin. She lifted her head to glower as her predicament and saw  _ him. _

“Where am I?” She asked, unfortunate that she couldn’t mask the tremor that laced her tenor when her anger was so evident. 

He had been waiting for her to wake with his cloak hood drawn back, still shrouded in layers of obsidian cloth. The snouted mask had remained. Seeing him before her, waiting with such a patience, enticed Rey into a fit of defiance. 

“You’re my guest,” his graven voice said simply, distorted by the helmet’s filter.

“Where are the others?”

“You mean the murders, traitors and thieves you call friends? You’ll be relieved to hear I have no idea.” He tilted his head and asked, “You  _ still _ want to kill me?”

_ Yes _ , the thought struck her. In fact, up until recently, Rey had never taken a life. It was the Stormtrooper back in Takodana that garnered this recent acquisition. Had she paused long enough for her actions to warrant a moment’s consideration, perhaps she would have felt regret and sorrow. Too much had happened since that and she couldn’t find herself to feel guilt or even despair for what had occurred.  Her eyes locked onto the stoic enemy before her.

_ Yes _ , the thought seethed into her a second time. She wanted him dead so she could safely get back to Jakku and return to her scavenging life. This  _ thing _ , this masked assailant was a threat, she  _ knew  _ that. She  _ felt  _ it. The mere presence of him aroused a sense of anger she had never tasted in the past.

“That’s what happens when you’re being hunted by a  _ creature _ in a mask.” Her whisper dripped with venom as she spoke and the anger that rose within her coiled an angry head, rearing back to strike.

Slowly, he reached up, releasing the seal of his mask with an audible hiss.  He stood while he lifting it from his head. When black silken curls fell out, Rey was confused at first. Then came the pale skin of his face, a narrow but prominent nose and dark eyes. His lips were full with a wide-set mouth.

Rey blinked, uncomfortable with the sight before her. 

He was a human male and so young and even though he hadn’t simply told her, she could feel the conflict rolling off of him like waves of heat. Her mouth fell dry and her lungs struggled to heave for air. The room had stifled as she stared into the eyes of the man before her. She was confused suddenly, unfathomably bemused. She averted her gaze, fearing that her expression gave way to her thoughts. He turned away, slamming his helmet into a pile of ashes near by. He came back around and stood next to her.

What had she expected when he removed the mask? An animal of the sort? Perhaps the face of a reptile that she had grown familiar with along the rolling dunes of Jakku.

She hadn’t anticipated for him to be a human, a male.

A  _ young  _ male, at that. Rey was almost twenty now. Where did that put him?

With the waves of confliction emanating from him like a luring fragrances and her own slighted confusion, Rey did not look at him. She stared ahead, towards the only exit as his proximity wavered.

She felt his heat and something else…

_ Wrath. _

“Tell me about the droid.” He said with a voice like flint.

Defiance came to thought like an eager fire, swelling in her chest and she felt her teeth grind, flexing her jaw in determination. She wasn’t going to tell him anything. 

He felt this. The same invasive air that came in tow since she met him returned, pushing through her like a soft breeze. He leaned closer to her until his breath brushed her ear, spiking her adrenaline and resolve.

“Tell me about the droid,” he repeated. His predatory gaze weighed upon her, lifting chills about her shoulders. She stifled a shudder.

“He’s a BB unit.” She said quickly. She opened her mouth to continue on the function, installation, make and model of the astromech, but the man cut her off.

“He’s carrying a section of the navigation chart and we have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire, but we need the last piece. And somehow, you’ve convinced the droid to show it to you.  _ You _ ,” he said incredulously, “A scavenger.”

The confusion Rey had quickly felt began to dim, replacing with the fear to survive. Out of habit, she clenched her jaw, flexing the muscles as she fought the rise of trepidation. She stole a glance just in time to see him give her a once over.

His brow furrowed. “You know I can take whatever I want.”

Rey said nothing. She knew what he meant. He would dig. She wasn’t ready for what he might find.

He stepped closer, nearly brushing her arm as he rose a hand level with her temple. 

The slight pressure she had detected all along, came flooding in. The fingertips she felt near the side of her head had turned the claws, sinking their talons into her flesh, passed her bone and into her brain. It was painful and difficult to conceal the grimace upon her countenance.

She could fill him digging, sifting through her thoughts, her internal dialogue.

It was difficult to breathe and her face was growing hot. Between the tension about her neck and head, she prayed she would pass out before he obtained too much.

Something stirred within Rey’s resolve.

“You’re so lonely,” he whispered with his head down as if the act alone required careful listening.  Her eyes were opened but the images were still unraveling, playing out though she willed them to stop. A torrent of memories, blurred with color and distorted sounds raced through her head. The images suddenly stopped. As if she recalled the memory itself, she saw a glimpse of her standing among the sands of Jakku, staring into the barren sky.

“You’re so afraid to leave.” He was closer now. His breath on her neck, several obsidian curls had made way into her field of vision. “At night, so desperate to sleep. Imagining an ocean?” He nodded, “I see it. I see an island.”

He took a shaky breath. “And Han Solo. You feel like he’s the father you never had. He would have disappointed you.”

“Get out of my head.” Rey snarled. 

He pushed off the metal chair and positioned himself before her with his hand still outstretched, maintaining the Force against her. “I know you’ve seen the map. It’s in there and now, you will give it to me.”

And it came; the Force. 

It pulled against her and not only mentally, but physically. Her body lulled before, held against the constraints on her limbs. Blood surged through her vein under the exertion of pressure. 

Through gritted teeth, her breath came out short and staggering. But slowly, her resolve began to fortify. It started in her chest, blooming out until it wrapped around her shoulders and ascended her neck. Her face flushed hot still, even as it reached her head.

She could breathe easier now, but there was still friction enveloping her. She sighed quickly and the heat began to recede. She sighed again and it lessened further.

Rey met his eyes and there was a brief flash of something she couldn’t identitify.

“Don’t be afraid,” he encouraged, gently. “I feel it, too.”

But there was no flood of images or surge of sound so she must be doing good.

After another unsteady breath, she stammered, “I’m not giving you...anything.”

“We’ll see,” he replied, stepping closer.

It felt like a punch to her midsection, Rey sagged in her constraint as the Force racked against her, tearing through her veins and rattling her bones with a silent tremor. A strangled grunt bubbled in her throat, but still, no images or no sounds. She focused on it, milking it until his hold no longer resonated so violently within. The tingling that seared her veins subsided. She exhaled through gritted teeth.

With clawed hands and trembling knees, Rey leveled her gaze onto him. Her breathing was short and staggering, but progressively relaxing. 

She watched his reaction, took heed as he stepped closer, willing the Force to probe harder, to delve deeper. His face contorted with effort under a knitted brow, realizing…

_ She wasn’t letting him. _

The anger now clawing its way up, seizing her lungs and beading sweat along her brow, pushed forth. A flash of new images obscured her thoughts and she knew immediately, the images were not of her own derivative. She felt his fluttering heart, the metallic tang of fear that sat heavily on her own tongue. But the fear was not her own and the bloodshed was not of her hand.

“You’re afraid?” She breathed, clarifying her query. 

_ Yes, he was afraid. _

The images continued to unfold. 

“That you’ll never be as strong as Darth Vader,” she snarled, the clarity of his identity struck her. Delving into his mind had told her enough about him and exposed to her the pain of his past, written crudely in blood. The truth was startling; Kylo Ren.

His name bloomed out like a drop of blood on her tongue.

Upon this cognition, there was a jolting sensation. It surged through her, pushing out like a gust of wind that sent Kylo Ren faltering back.

His proverbial aloofness had vanished. No longer did he possess of the air and address of impassivity. He was overtly stunned.

_ By her doing. _

He was just as surprised as she by the way his eyes widened and the panting that heaved his shoulders. He righted himself, rising to his full stature. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he strode for him helmet, plucking it from the ashes of his grandfather’s demise.

He turned away causing his thick cloak to flare out as he approached the blast door and left. 

 

* * *

 

Rey did not find herself alone this time. By the door posted a Stormtrooper. She had felt his presence at the end of the hall as he made way for her chamber where Kylo Ren held her captive. Minutes had passed and an idea struck her.

She cocked her head to the side, whispering over her shoulder.

A tingling began in her chest as she spoke.

“You will release these retraints and leave with the door open.”

There was a shuffling emission of armor, and then his footfalls. The Stormtrooper emerged from her right, blaster in hand.

“I should tighten those restrains, scavenger scum,” he sneered.

But she had his attention now and leaned forward, certain that he stared her in the eyes.

Again, but softer as an eery calm befell both the Force-sensitive and the Stormtrooper, she said,

“ _You will remove these restraints and leave with the door open.”_

The Stormtrooper straightened as his arms dropped mechanically to his sides. “I will remove these restraints and leave with the door open.” He reached down, pressing a button and the binds about her wrist and ankles flew open. He marched away.

Before the Stormtrooper strayed too far, she quickly added, “And you will drop your gun.”

“And I will drop my gun.” He echoed, subsequently there was the scattering sound as his gun connected to the cold floor.

A triumphant smile graced her features as she hopped from the chair.  

She came around the contraption and stopped short as a burst of energy slammed into her. Her knees buckled and she sank to the floor with a gasp.

Kylo Ren stood in the open entryway. A hand stretched forth as the tightening took hold of Rey. Experimentally, and because she still had a fraction of control, Rey lifted her own arm, but another blast coursed through her, yanking her arm downward until she face-planted into the floor.

“You’re learning.” Kylo Ren muttered with a graven voice, stepping into the chamber. He maintained the upper hand, applying enough resistance against her. “I bring you good news.”

Rey could not reply and had she the authority, only an invective would suffice.

She watched his booted feet gain proximity to her. The sway of his thick cloak drifted behind his heels. He crouched when he was near enough.

“I’ve spoken to the Supreme Leader Snoke and he is aware of your Force-sensitivity,” Kylo Ren continued.

A grunt puffed her cheeks out as she struggled to breathe.

And in a low voice, he said, “I’m going to release you and if you try to run, or use your newly acquired talent, I will kill you.” He paused, reaching forth for a tendril of hair that hung across her cheek. Rey braced, but he reconsidered, standing and backing away.

He waved a hand and the pressure diminished at once.

She sagged against the floor as her lungs greedily sucked in the cool air.

“Are you interested?” He stated evenly.

Rey rolled her head forward, pressing her forehead into the cold floor. She planted her palms into it and gradually lifted herself into a seated position. The Force was entirely separate compared to any physical exertion she had encountered. It went deeper than that and had the ability to wreak havoc on all assets of the human body. She was feeling these effects now as a veil of exhaustion descended upon her. Simply thinking proved to be an effort.

Kylo Ren waited in silence as she gathered herself up.

Without looking away from the floor, she growled. “What does he want?”

Surely the map, she thought, and the droid. Why not?

“Your allegiance,” he replied.


	3. Chapter 3

Rey scoffed unabashedly.

“My _allegiance_ ?” She gawked, propping her hands akimbo. “I’m not swearing my allegiance to the _First Order_. I’m not even supposed to be here!” On shaky knees, Rey lifted herself to a stance, dusting off her pants and tunic from the debris collected along the floor.

Kylo Ren pulled his hands behind his back, phlegmatically. Rey had to rely on his body language since he preferred to hide behind his mask.

“You’re mad!” She added as she adjusted the front of her garb. For the innumerable time since she had arrived, she wished to be back in the shifting sands of Jakku. The things she would do for familiarity.

“Snoke expected your disinclination,” Kylo Ren began, “He said in case you found yourself unwilling to his wishes, other means could be met.”

Rey perked a brow as her gaze fixated upon him. “And these means are?”

Kylo Ren took a casual step forward, glancing down as his path steered him towards Rey. “That if you did not bend to the will of Supreme Leader Snoke, than your existence would be of no use to the First Order.”

“So you’d kill me.” Rey straight-faced. She wished to see his face, to gauge whether he was bluffing or not. He had to be, Rey had seen the map and it was the map that they had wanted. She was the last obstacle that stood in their way. Once they acquired the map, they could find Luke Skywalker and thus, the Last Jedi.

Kylo Ren did not confirm or negate her suspicion, opting to remain quiet as he regarded her behind his black snouted mask.

“What’s in it for me?” She queried.

Kylo made a certain contemplative sound in response. “You would be trained in the ways of the Force. You would sharpen your skills so long as you used them for the benefit of the First Order.”

The distorted sound of his voice twisted Rey’s gut with trepidation. In the little time she had spent with Kylo Ren, she knew he was ruthless. Diving into his memories, however brief, exposed enough of his fury to apprehend anyone from agreeing to such terms. He was merely one of several Knights of Ren. The Master. And with Master’s come trainees. Rey knew where she was to fall if she were to accept the proposition.

Her jaw ticked as she stared into the expressionless mask.

It was death or become Kylo Ren’s puppet. She couldn’t fathom which was worse.

She was surrounded by the enemy. Perhaps even, her friends had no idea where she fled off to, or that she had even been captured by the First Order. This was merely a cop out to obtain the map she had locked in her head. That’s all this was. But somehow, Rey still had managed to keep him out. She, with so little understanding of the Force and even lesser training, managed.

If she agreed to this, she wondered, it wouldn’t be because of any interest in the First Order. Kylo Ren _was_ to be reckoned with. He was a Master of the Knights Ren. Perhaps, she could learn something from him, but it would _not_ be allegiance. She mulled further, playing out the scenarios in her head like a strategic game.

“I am waiting,” Kylo’s voice rumbled, impatiently.

She _could_ be trained, Rey considered. After all, she was already behind enemy lines. The least she could do would be to gain something in her advantage. Granted, she would need a great deal of patience and perseverance. She could heighten her infant powers, training alongside Kylo, who she was certain at this point to become her Master. The thought stirred her with apprehension and spite.

 _Sure_ , her thoughts glowered. _With or without my allegiance, I will become stronger with the Force._

Fearing that he may pick up the frequency of her thoughts, Rey snuffed out any further muse.

She felt herself nodding, fisting her hands at her sides as the decision came to a sudden.

“I’ll do it,” she whispered to herself. Immediately tasting the sours of disdain and regret when she spoke.

“Good.” He said, turning to face her again. “I will show you to your compartment.”

* * *

 

Kylo Ren had subdued her.

Not because he concessed her an invalid of the sort, incapable of walking on her own.

No, he subdued her because she could do _much_ more than that. To him. To passing troopers. To the integrity of the mission. The First Order needed her to find the Last Jedi and it was up to Kylo to ensure the mission came to a successful conclusion, as per Snoke’s orders.

_“I believe this girl,” Supreme Leader Snoke had spoken carefully, seated beneath the pale light above, “Is the rippling disturbance we have all felt. The Awakening.”_

Before Snoke had uttered another word, he knew he would be in charge of the girl. Another nuisance, he thought.

_"I will leave that to you, Kylo Ren." Snoke had added._

Her power was increasing, emitting from her like a flower’s bloom. It was foolish to even garner a snippet of clemency on her behalf. Her powers were wild and untamed, charged and arcing off her like sun flares. It was impressive that she had kept them concealed for so long.

Behind him followed two Stormtroopers. Each held an arm as they half-dragged an unconscious Rey through the Star Destroyer’s passageways.

Supreme Leader Snoke had order Kylo Ren to turn the girl to the Dark Side and quickly. The idea had never occurred to him, having more Force-sensitive within the First Order. If it meant crippling the Resistance, he would do it.

The three approached a holding cell as the door rose up.

“Place her on the bed.” Kylo Ren ordered. “I will tend to the rest.”

The troopers obliged, dragging the limp female into the cell’s innards and tossing her upon the bed. As they strode off, he summoned a passing droid.

“Bring a tray of food,” he told the astromech as it skirted off in the direction of ship’s galley.

He stared into the innards of the cell and thought.

Training Rey as his Padawan meant she would become a Knight of Ren. This singular thought alone was enticing. None of the other Knights were female, and none were as strong as this one, either. He needed an equal, another to wield a saber by his side.

He discerned the tacky palls of desert garb she wore, wind-whipped and tattered by the blowing sands.

She needed a uniform, he realized.

* * *

 

Kylo Ren watched her, but she still did not indulge his curiosity on the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker or even the map she had witnessed. But for the sake of knowing, he had prodded slightly, however, the images did not manifest.

It was a shame really, for Kylo knew if he pushed hard enough, he could get it. He always got what he wanted.

For now, he watched her mind relive the steeping dunes of Jakku within her metaphysical realm. She traipsed along. Her gait was strong and determined; a woman used to traversing the unsteady steps of sand. Up ahead was an AT-AT which lied upon its portside. A staff was tucked under her arm as she progressed through the sand towards it. She approached the belly, slipping off the strap of her weapon and ducking into the shadows provided by an open in the craft.

She had just propped the staff against the bulkhead when a shifting in the darkness had her spinning around in surprise.

There was a glint of metal, refracted by the desert line before it was swallowed by shadows that furthered into the interior of the downed Walker.

Rey was frozen momentarily. He could feel her heart starting to race.

Then he felt her resolve like a breeze as she stepped forward, challenging the maurader who had been caught inside _her_ home.

But just as soon as her resolve spiked, a hand shot out from the darkness, cloaked in black. She only meant to pull away, but in her effort, she yanked the stranger from the inky depths, revealing them to the Jakku sun.

Kylo Ren watched himself stalk towards her until her back braced against an adjacent bulkhead. Her racing heart had an effect on Kylo Ren's, nearly mirroring his own with its rapid percussion. He watched as she reached up for his mask, catching the snout firmly and yanking it upward. The mask ripped from his head and his curls fell away, a sheen of sweat glistened his skin, and she leaned in...

In the cell, Rey snapped awake, severing the connection and thus, ending the dream.

But Kylo Ren had already seen enough. 

* * *

 

Rey gasped awake as the nightmare burned away by her consciousness. Her heart was racing while she struggled to catch her breath. Beneath her was a cushion of the sort and by the grasping of her hands, she heeded to the thick blankets she laid across. 

A bed, she registered.

Like the moment back on Takodana, she felt him before she saw that he was across the room.

She quickly sat up, shooting a glare towards his position.

Kylo Ren was seated upon the floor, much similar posture when she first woke with his knees drawn upward and forearms resting atop.  At his side was a tray heaping with food. She could smell it now and her stomach twisted painfully with hunger.

As if reading her thoughts, Kylo reached down and pushed the tray. It skittered across the slick floor, only making it part way to Rey.

She glanced between him and the food before sliding down onto the floor from the bed. She reached across, catching the lip of the tray and dragging it towards her.

She’d never see so much food. The amount alone could hold her off for weeks!

Her stomach panged again, reprimanding her for not digging in.

Crossing her legs, Rey glanced about the servings, unsure of where to start and then a thought flickered across her mind.

She paused.  _What if it’s poisoned?_

The hissing release of Kylo’s helmet averted Rey’s attention as he quickly stood up. He tucked the helmet beneath his arm and came to her side. He crouched, sticking a finger through a gooey mash and tasting it himself. He was showing her it _wasn’t_ poisoned.

Rey blinked. _He’s in my head._ But found her eyes lowering to watch the way his lips wrapped around his pale finger and her heart stuttered, bringing her back to the belly of the Walker and the unwarranted actions of her dream. He swallowed and for a moment, they watched each other. Slowly, his brow dipped in concern and he quickly came to a stand.

“You need to eat.” He said, slightly agitated. “Afterwards, you will rest again. When you wake up, training will begin. Am I understood?"

Rey nodded. Her face flushed in embarrassment. He spun around, his cloak flaring in the wake of his movements as he strode for the door.

The door hissed open, allowing him quick retreat before slamming shut again. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some smut. enjoy.

Rey felt disgusted herself.

She finished off the majority of her food but eventually she could no longer focus on eating, but regretting. It overwhelmed her until she lost the interest entirely.

Violently, she kicked away the tray. It spun, slinging leftover scraps across the floor and filling her confinement with clatter. The mental castigation continued, taking her back to the dream, to Kylo licking his finger, to the moment she realized he had glimpsed into her head. There had been a shadowing within his eyes while she watched him taste the mash.

She flexed her jaw under a scowl. 

Kylo Ren was _not_ to be admired in any fashion. Kylo Ren was a menace to the New Republic, to the Resistance, to life that spanned the galaxy. She lifted herself from the floor and plopped onto the bed, fuming. Her chest felt hot as she chided herself in silence. How was she to find enough solace to sleep under the torrent of rebukes? And what would training be like under a Master of the Knights of Ren? Her stomach twisted with enough nerves, she nearly felt nauseous.

 _You’re just a scavenger thrown between sides,_ she thought.  _You have no part in this._

Her thoughts drifted to the first time she boarded the Star Destroy, just earlier today. Seeing Kylo Ren before her, tilting his head in sly curiosity.

 _“You still want to kill me?”_ He had asked.

But the eagerness she had felt the moment he inquired lagged. Rey found a very different reaction to the statement. She kicked off her boots.

_He’s playing with my head._

She blamed it on her inexperience with Humans. Jakku was a medley of droids, Quarrens, Hutts, and the inhabitant Uthuthmas. For every dozen of scavengers, Rey might encounter one Human. Now here she was, stuck with a Human male who, she assumed, was within close proximity, agewise.

She didn’t know what to do with herself at this point. She just some little girl with little exposure to a droid and its map. That's all she was. That's all she wanted to be. Not some  _Force-sensitive,_ lodged between the First Order and the Resistance.

Flopping down against the stiff bed upon her side, she drew her knees close and stared into the wall.

In minutes, she was asleep.

* * *

  


Kylo Ren was standing in the ship’s bridge next to General Hux. Very rarely did the two men converse without a conflict arising. More often than not, it was Kylo Ren who lost patience, having to leave the room to keep from breaking the little irritant’s neck. The Supreme Leader knew the two did not play well.

“I heard you’ve acquired a little _pet_.” General Hux said, curtly. “Snoke mentioned that if the girl didn’t thrive under your training, he would have me tend to her. _In case, you grew too fond_.” Though, the General was hiding the true intention, Kylo Ren saw into his memory. The Supreme Leader had order him to extinguish the girl should she fail to aid the First Order.

“I am her Master.” Kylo Ren said evenly, though there was a hardened scowl beneath his mask. “And if training does not progress, I will kill her myself.”

 _In what degree did any of this concern him?_ Kylo Ren thought inwardly.

“Besides,” he continued without heeding to the smug look upon General Hux’s countenance. “She’d kill you before the idea even occurred.”

The smirk dropped.

He turned his head the side in time to watch General Hux shift uneasily beside him. Hux was just a man. Just like the rest, he was starving for power, but he would never been one of the Knights of Ren. 

Kylo Ren stepped passed this red-headed boob to approach a stretch of window within the ship’s bridge. He stared out into the stars with his hands drawn to the small of his back.

Using the Force, he reached out until he felt her.

She had fallen asleep just moments of him entering her mind. He considered egressing, but realized she had trapped herself into the very dream she was so inclined to wake from.

_She was back in the belly of the Walker with a hitched breath and hammering heart, reaching up for his mask._

Kylo Ren went rigid as he dropped his hands. He reached down and held onto a control desk before him, falling quiet among the crew as his mind’s eye watched.

 _The mask was yanked away_ ; yes, he remembered seeing this.

But this time, there was more. His hands squeezed the edge of the control desk.

_She dropped it to the sand as she leaned in. It appeared he met her part way and their lips pressed against each other._

Kylo Ren stood at once. He needed to leave the room, needed to leave the dream.

But as he quickly left the innards of the bridge, striding through the hallway until he reached the closed doors of an elevator, _Rey had begun undressing him. The layers of his obsidian tunic had been peeled away, exposing him to hot desert air as her hands worked the belt that harnessed his weapon._

In silence, he stood as the elevator door slid shut. He wasn’t alone. A pair of Stormtroopers were riding along the descent to the lower levels.

They muttered their greetings but he ignored them, watching in the reflection of the elevator walls as they exchanged glances.

Kylo Ren _was_ powerful. Indeed, he could do many things while invading someone’s mind, such as carry on a conversation and much more. He’d been able to keep prisoners induced into a coma while he remained in a completely separate sector of the galaxy.

So he _could_ have muttered a greeting back, but why?

_When she had opened her hand towards his lightsaber. It tremored in its harness, thrashing against his hip until freeing, and colliding into her palm._

“Hmmph.” Kylo Ren thought aloud, intrigued. “What a bizarre thing to dream.”

“Excuse me, sir?” One of the Stormtroopers inquired.

Kylo Ren shot him a glare beneath his helmet before the elevator slid open. He stepped out and stalked down the corridor.

_Rey had taken his hands, lifting them to her shoulders. They gently gathered the fabric of her desert garb, sliding it away to bare her shoulders to him. He came forward, burying his face into her neck._

Kylo Ren breathed, his heart thrummed.

 _She dropped her head back while a moan parted her lips. With her free hand, she tangled her fingers into his hair. He kissed her jawline, the delicate flesh of her neck and followed her collarbone until he tasted the curve of her shoulder. His hands continued downward, pulling the fabric in their wake.  She tossed the lightsaber into the sand and went to unfastening her own utility belt. It fell to the floor under a heavy_ clank! _He let go and the attire dropped into a pool about her ankles. She resided in thin undergarments before him. His eyes took in the swell of her breasts, following down her flat stomach and onto her blooming hips._

_Kylo watched through the desert shine that pooled through the opening as a pinking kissed her freckled cheeks. Inhibited by a sudden demure, Rey rose her arms to shield herself from his eyes, casting her own to the Walker floor._

_He stepped closer, pulling her against him in a heated kiss, and fumbling the clasp of her bra. The hooks gave way, loosening the straps about her shoulders. She grew more hesitant then finally lowered her arms so that the article could shed itself._

Kylo Ren sucked in a breath as he moved through the corridors that approached her cell. His heart had jumped excitedly from the sight alone. He stopped short and glanced behind him. When the coast proved clear, he ducked into a shadowy insert within the Star Destroyer’s passageway. Pressing his back into the cold wall, he sank down onto the floor and drew his knees in. He continued watching.

_Rey tangled her hands into the curls of his hair once more, pulling his mouth firmly against her own. One hand rest on her hip while the other gently caressed the smooth valley of her sternum before brushing over her breast._

_She bit down, sinking her teeth into his bottom lip as his hand kneaded her carefully. He palmed her flesh, fingers resting against the convex of her mound. Rey pressed her lips to his to stifle a moan. He felt the rumble of her desire beneath his hand as he continued kneading. A thickening below Kylo’s waistline had him pinning Rey to the wall with his hips. Her hands dropped to his shoulders, not once breaking away from his mouth. She lifted herself using him and hopped back onto a protrusion along the bulkhead. She yanked him closer, nestling him between her legs as their kissing fervid._

Kylo Ren was getting hard. He adjusted himself so that it laid heavily against his thigh, for comfort and concealment.

 _Rey finally severed the kiss, almost abruptly. She sat back, dropping her hands to the front of his trousers, but held his eyes with her own. The fasten was loosened and the trousers fell. He was stark naked before her. His member sprang free, aching within its heat. When her eyes lowered to his sex_ …

Kylo felt her sting of fear.

_He reached for her carefully, hooking his fingers against the hem of her panties. She obliged, lifting her hips so he could slide them away. Before he could even gaze into her, she brought him back between her legs. She sat up, pressing her front into his and wrapping her arms around him until she palmed his shoulders._

Kylo Ren exhaled a staggering breath. His erection throbbed painfully.

_A conflict of fear and need came over Rey._

_“I’m ready,” she barely whispered against his shoulder._

_“Are you sure?” Kylo asked. It’d been the first time he had spoken in her dream._

_She nodded, widening her legs and squeezing her eyes shut._

_Kylo Ren reached down between their bodies and took him into his grasp. He brushed her entrance. She was slick with arousal, he felt. She tilted her hips, allowing him easier entry, but he wasn’t ready to take her yet. He ran his tip along the entrance of her heat, eliciting a stream of soft noises from her._

_“Please,” she hissed, biting into his shoulder and digging her nails into his back._

_He pressed into her sodden folds. Penetration was...not effortless. Her body had done what it could to provide slick entry, but she was... was…_

Kylo Ren shoved his hand down his trouser roughly. He took himself into his hands and squeezed, slowly stroking himself in the shadows.

_He pushed further into her, stretching her walls that clenched against his cock. He hissed with gritted teeth, reveling in the wet warmth of her body. But her nails dug into him, braiding pain and pleasure into one._

_There was a sudden resistance, he felt. His hands, which were previously propped to either side of Rey’s hips, came up and cupped beneath the back of her knees. He parted them wider, delving into her with painstaking progress. The resistance that he had felt came with a pop and his cock slid in deeper._

_Rey yelped, almost pulling away had he not had ahold of her legs. One hand wrapped around his hip, the other rested on his shoulder. He continued, watching her face contort in pain._

_“_ I can stop.” Kylo heard himself whisper in the shadows, though he spoke to no one. His eyes were closed tightly as his hand worked his length. He had to stifle his breathing with gritted teeth.

_“No!” She gasped, pulling him by the hold on his hip, delving him further._

_He rolled his hip forward, forcing her to receive him entirely. He listened as her breath hitched, her legs widening for him. He withdrew then sank back into her slowly. He did this a few more times, pumping into her with a sedated pace until entry was effortless and she no longer choked on her breath._

_Now he drove himself into her, quickening the pace, but not giving way to the savagery that threatened his composure. Her tiny pants turned to whimpers as she leaned back against the bulkhead. He pushed her legs up further, allowing even deeper penetration._

Kylo Ren was close.

_“I’m close,” Rey breathed with gritted teeth, her face and chest flushed red._

He pumped faster.

_Rey was having difficulty breathing under the onslaught of pleasure that harrowed through her. Her feet bounced under his exertion. His own breath came in quick gust as a pressure rapidly climbed at the base of his spine. He could feel her once yielding walls constrict around him, heightening the sensation until,_

Kylo Ren came.

_He drove into her, burying himself to her hilt as his seed exploded out._

He stopped the drops that shot out from his tip just inches before they fell onto his garb by the Force. His lungs worked quickly, staggering his breath as he milked himself. In his head, he felt the connection severe.

Rey had awakened.


	5. Chapter 5

Rey woke to the flexing sensation of her own climax.

Her hands flew out, fisting the thin sheet beneath her as a regrettable moan tumbled over her lips. A shuddering came through her legs, knocking her knees together and throwing her head back.

As the shattering orgasm finally began to wane, she willed herself into a steady breathing. She straightened her legs out and sat up. Rey's entire body was aflame. The price of having a nocturnal emissions made her senses charged and raw, and a heavy moisture pooled between her legs. A pulse hummed through her now. One that did not sync with her own heartbeat, but every so often, they aligned as one.

"What the hell," she breathed, throwing her legs over the edge of the bed. She palmed the place of her heart and closed her eyes, respiring heavily. She forced herself to calm down, quickly admonishing herself for something that was utterly uncontrollable. Her mind's play was becoming exceedingly untoward and detrimental to the nature of her containment. But appeared with every passing second, Rey became more inclined to see Kylo Ren in a fashion that could cost her her life.

The door to her cell then hissed open, and in the space of the entrance was _him,_ spiking her heart into another issue of mortification.

Still clad in black and obscured by his foreboding mask, he entered quietly with his hands drawn into fists.

"It's time to get started," he stated under a flat tone.

Rey almost inquired what he spoke of, but she remembered.

 _Training_.

Seeing Kylo Ren before her was troubling now as her sense still reeled from the torrents of passion she induced. Her body had just experience something she thought unfathomable, but it felt very real. The way her hands brushed over his hard chest. His skin, pale in the desert light. And the fervid she felt as they kissed.

He had taken her, filling her until her breath was stolen, gripping her tightly as he buried into her.

 _It was all a dream_.

Kylo Ren was still a predator and she, his prey.

The same proverbial conflict she felt portraying such an enemy corroded at her again, twisting her stomach anxiously.

"Your attire is there." Kylo Ren gestured to the neatly stacked gear across the room. "It's time to get started"

Rey glanced between her new uniform and back to Kylo Ren. A moment progressed. He made no indication he was leaving so she stood slowly, weary about having the change before him.

_Despite the dream._

She went across the room and plucked up the top article of clothing. A tunic unfolded before her, falling into a lengthy pall much similar to Kylo's. She draped it across her arm to observe the following garbs and picked up a pair of slacks.

Glancing down at her own dress wear, Rey felt a cinching build in her throat. Removing these clothes meant separating herself from what was left of Jakku and the home she made out of it.

"You are not a scavenger anymore," He said behind her, noting her reluctance to change into the new uniform. "You will not dress like one so long as you are my Apprentice." The same pulse from earlier returned, staggering an offbeat rhythm against her own heart.

She dropped the attire onto the chair before her, and moved her hands over the knot of her makeshift utility belt. Fumbling the constraint, it gave way and she gently laid it onto the deck. Next was her trousers.

She paused, glancing carefully over her shoulders toward Kylo Ren.

Eyeing the scowling mask, Rey wasn't sure if she preferred that to having him shed it so she at least could see his expression. But in truth, who Kylo Ren _was_ compared to who he had been within her dream were entirely separate. She faced forward again, slipping her thumbs into the hem of her pants and undressing. She kicked them aside and slipped on her new black trousers. Peeling her tunic away, Rey gathered the black cloth and felt around for its opening.

Something firm, yet flexible came into her touch. She prodded it slightly and realized a support bra had been sewn into the fabric. She would need to remove her bra.

Her stomach flip flopped upon this clarity. She sat the tunic down and reached back to unclasp her undergarment. The cold air of the cell was already prickling her skin, only heightening this sensation when it caressed her exposed chest. One arm pressed against her bosom while the other discarded the garment. She reached forward, plucking the tunic up and shimmying it on.

The heavy fabric was quick to warm her and hugged her figure like a glove. She smoothed her palms down the taper of her waist, adjusting the thick black pall that skirted the deck between her feet. Another one hung from the back.

It was a Knights of Ren uniform, she frowned. This alone seemed to solidify her agreement to the First Order and it came to little surprise as a veil of apprehension came over her.

In her mind's eye, she saw Kylo Ren move, but in reality, he had not.

Before she could avert her attention, he was standing behind her. He reached for her utility belt and began donning it about her waist himself. His modulated breath was a soft sound against her ear as he worked the material about her midsection, brushing his fingers along her frame as he worked.

Rey closed her eyes as a shuddering waved through her, almost certain that he saw how her body reacted.

Her heart and the imprecise beating fell in sync.

Even beneath the mask, she felt his breathing shift, falling short under a distorted sound.

"Let's get started." He said, steadily.

* * *

_There, they go._

General Hux grumbled inwardly as he watched Kylo Ren and his new little pet disappear into the training room. Hux had not laid eyes on her yet, but from what little he observed, it appeared she was quite young.

A chrome-polished Stormtrooper loomed into his line of vision.

"General, we are preparing to darken ship." The articulated voice of Captain Phasma reported.

"Yes," Hux muttered. "I'm aware." His eyes never straying once from the closed door where Kylo Ren and his toy had entered to.

Soon the Star Destroyer would fall dark, making the passageways difficult to maneuver through. Without the rotation of a planet that would normally set sunrise and sunfall, sleep cycles were offset and the integrity of performance waned. It was a new adaptation. One General Hux found foolish and time-consuming.

 _If it weren't for that arrogant bastard_. Hux flexed his jaw, glaring at the door from afar.

"As you were, Captain." The General clipped, glancing towards the chrome-plated Stormtrooper.

He waited for her to disappear about the corner of the corridor before proceeding for the training room.

Ever since FN-2187 went rogue, Kylo Ren made it a priority to question whether or not Hux's troopers were viable in battlefield. He had witnessed the misalignment first hand when they sent an assault team to Jakku. When the flag ship returned, Kylo Ren had muttered a few disdaining remarks on behalf of Hux's army, undermining his achievement.

The General had been summoned later that day, only to be told he _should_ consider resurrecting clone armies by Snoke, himself. He knew where the idea had derived from and baited at the chance to reprimand his surly colleague for suggesting such. Hux reflected.

_"That won't be necessary," he had told to the Supreme Leader. "My men have been raised to be loyal from birth, to one another, to the Empire, and to the First Order. One bad apple does not spoil the entire tree."_

How he managed to convince the Supreme Leader that his army was to remain diverse was beyond him. General Hux was not a quack. He was the leader of the First Order and it was up to him to see it thrive, not some rabid _Knight of Ren_.

Hux now stood before the door of the training room. He could hear their play-strife from the other side, but he could not see them.

 _But why a girl?_ Hux scoffed, inwardly.

As far as he knew, the Knights were all Force-sensitive males. Unfortunately Hux could not enter the sparring room to ask Kylo Ren himself. Hux did not have the jurisdiction to enter the space; only Knights of Ren and their skulking perpetuance.

 _"He operates separately from you." Snoke's voice reminded him from a past conversation._ This had not sat well with General Hux. Though, Kylo Ren was the Master of the Knights of Ren. He was _not_ the leader of the First Order. Hux had to stand aside as Kylo Ren wrecked havoc on it with every given chance. From destroying things with his unruly lightsaber, to taking ships without proper clearance, to recruiting women into his little club. The man was garnering secrets as he came and went. If left unchecked, Hux knew Kylo Ren's personal motives were corrosive and provided no means of promoting growth to the First Order.

Becoming so absorbed in his muse, Hux did not take heed to the silence that had fallen within the sparring room.

The door opened before him, startling Hux back into his exterior predicament.

"What do you want?" Kylo Ren, the masked fiend, seethed.

From behind his black-sodden frame, Hux saw the girl. She was on sitting on her heels, hands planted along her thighs as she struggled to catch her breath, and already dressed for the part, sporting the proverbial carbon...well, _everything._

Hux squared his shoulders. "I wanted to ensure you were following the Leader's orders. We don't have a lot of time to be squandering."

The General noticed the baton in Kylo's right hand and one that appeared to be thrown across the room, not far from the girl.

"I appreciate your concern, _General Hux_. Perhaps the time you've spent standing at this door, worrying about the affairs of my apprentice and I, you could have started on your clone army."

Before Hux could muster a rebuke, Kylo Ren allowed the door to shut.

* * *

Kylo Ren was not out of breath, but Rey was exhausted. Frankly, he was surprised she had made it this long without falling out. She was strong, physically and with the Force. Unfortunately, her skills were far from fine tuning and her sparring techniques were…

"Sloppy," Kylo Ren muttered aloud as he returned to stand before the kneeling Rey.

Rey regarded him with a glare. Tendrils of her dark curls clung to her cheeks as she sat upon the floor. "Who was that?" She inquired, looking towards the entrance.

"No one of any importance." Kylo Ren tersely replied.

"Again." He said, twirling the baton in one hand and readying his fighting stance.

Rey lifted herself on trembling knees, found her baton and readied into her own posture.

Without warning, he lunged forward, swinging downward for a hit to the shoulder, but Rey had moved, almost before he realized his own intentions.

"No," Kylo Ren growled, tightening his grip upon the baton as he backed away. The Force was aiding her and he had strictly told her not to rely on it.

 _"First, spar. And when you're ready, we will delve deeper."_ He had said.

He could block her from foretelling his actions, simply. But for his own reasons, he kept the channel open, catching glimpse into her mind when she lowered her guard variably. She was still a novice when it came to using the Force to obtain and control intangible practices.

"I'm not fighting with this!" She spat, throwing the baton aside. She marched across the room towards a weapon rack, obtained a staff and returned to stand before him.

"Very well, then." Kylo Ren whispered.

* * *

General Hux stared up at the massive holograph of Supreme Leader Snoke. Motes of dust drifted weightlessly through the light and frame of Snoke.

"What is it now?" The leader grumbled with a thin voice. It had been the second time in a single day that General Hux sought the Supreme Leader's guidance.

"Supreme Leader, if I may be so bold as to inquire further detail on the reason for harboring and _training_ an enemy. She is of the Resistance and serves no purpose to the First Order." Hux snarled.

Snoke pursed his thin lips, "Kylo Ren believes she can be of an asset to the Knights of Ren. I believe this to be true. She is strong and with the right guidance, viable against hindering the Resistance. They will come looking for her and when they do, they will find someone else in her place. Be patient, General."

Hux gritted his teeth together. If it were up to him, he would snuff the girl out in her sleep.

"Do not...," Snoke hissed, "touch Master Kylo Ren's apprentice. Not until I say."

Hux flared his nostrils and bit his tongue. "As you wish, my Lord."

* * *

Rey had finally an advantage of some sort. Her hands were far more deft wrapped around a staff than some bulky and awkward baton.

But still, sparring Kylo Ren was difficult in some degrees. She prided herself in obtaining a few blows to him, but not enough to render him.

He was strong and surely fast. And far more skilled in sparring alone. Furthermore, her new uniform's weight had finally gotten to her and she was now drenched in her own sweat.

She swung again and Kylo countered effortlessly, swinging against her weapon and grinding his own baton against her's until he raked it across her knuckles.

It was an attempt to disarm her, but Rey remained, gritting her teeth to ignore the discomforting burn he inflicted against her knuckles.

Kylo Ren stepped forward, centering pressure onto her stance as she held the staff up. Her arms began to tremble. He knew this. She wished he had shed his helmet beforehand. At least she could read his eyes and what little expression he offered. But he had not, and thus, Rey was once again vigilant on his body language.

Another step was eaten away, causing Rey to surrender another foot.

In a sudden thrust with his arms, Kylo Ren sent Rey staggering back. Spotting her momentary loss of balance, he was upon her, shouldering her away almost brutishly. Her faltering steps nearly sent her sprawling to the floor mats, but quickly, she righted herself, still fighting to detach herself from his grapple. Both of his hands came up and seized her forearms, squeezing until it hurt as he pushed her backwards.

Her feet worked to progress across the map without losing her footing. At last, her back met the hard surface of a wall. Kylo Ren then yanked the staff clean from her hands and sent it whirling across the sparring room. He pinned her and suddenly...

 _It didn't feel like they were sparring anymore_.

Her heart, which as been hammering throughout the exertion of their strife, now thrummed for a different reason as she felt him press against her. He had never been _this close_. She had never actually _felt_ him.

His breathing, modulated and distorted from beneath the mask, was strenuous. He pressed into her until their chest met. He turned his head to the side, leaning to voice something into her ear.

"Do it," he whispered to her.

The statement was not misleading, nor did it confuse her in any manner. She knew what he wanted, knew what _she_ wanted. Perhaps, he had known all along.

He lifted her up, nestling between her parted legs and holding her against the wall with his hips. Rey rose a trembling hand, too stunned to look anywhere but straight into metallic, slitted mask before her. Her fingers fumbled the airlock, she flipped it. An hissing issuance sounded as the latch released. She felt like she was in the dream again as she hooked her fingers against the frame, reliving the moment she knew she wanted him.

Lifting it by the harden jowls, Rey revealed a flushed and equally-sweaty Master. His curls were drenched when they fell from his mask. Her hands slid up his chest, snaking their fingers into the locks of his hair. Kylo Ren's eyes bored into her, seeking answers to voiceless questions. She could feel him tremble as she touched his damp cheek. There was fear, she felt. So much fear radiating off of him that it began to eat at her, as well. She set her jaw, threading her fingers into the damp curls.

_Who had she suddenly become?_

Rey cupped the back of his neck as she pulled him close.

There was sadness and fear, wrapped in a determination that nearly suffocated her.

An inhibiting conviction shadowed his eyes and countenance. It simmered beneath such hate and rage, it waved Rey with chills.

His pain became hers. Her confusion became his.

As he neared, the mysterious and faint pulse she had been experiencing came tenfold, resonating through her like a war drum, losing its obscurity and defining itself into what Rey gathered as a heartbeat.

And their lips met and her fingers knotted into his hair and her heart thrilled. She pulled him closer.

The kiss was timid at first, but grew with such fervor, it hurt. It hurt, but still she found the insurmountable pleasure as she kissed him. They tasted each other, nipping at the sensitive flesh of their lips. He felt warm against her. She could feel him everywhere. Her sense were centered on him alone.

" _Prepare to darken ship."_ A clipping voice abruptly stated over the ship's communication system, startling both Master and Apprentice.

Kylo Ren pulled away, breaking the kiss and leaving both subjects stunned by their own actions. The white lights above the went out and a menacing red hue took reign of the training space. The heartbeat vanished, returning to the dull, amorphous percussion.

"We're done here," Kylo Ren breathed, refusing to look at Rey.

He returned all the weapons to their respective racks and picked his helmet up from the floor. Rey leaned against the wall, admonished by her behavior and everything she stood for. He paused before her, an arm reaching out.

"Come," he whispered.

And she followed.


	6. Chapter 6

Rey followed the wake of Kylo Ren's drifting cloak in silence. The passageway had lost its harsh fluorescent lights. Now the corridors were a murderous red that thickened the shadows as he led her back to her cell.

Kylo Ren had not spoken to her since they left the sparring room and for this, she was grateful. She feared the questions he had and the answers she wasn't entirely sure to give. In truth, it was still unknown what sprouted these affections. She'd grown up alone her entire life. Every relation she became exposed to was short-lived. _Her family_. _Finn_. Even Han Solo had only intended to drop her off in the care of Maz in order to get the droid back to the Resistance. Now before her, she was blindly and foolishly stumbling into another affliction she had seen many times, however _different_ the nature of her disposition.

Before her, Kylo Ren punched in the passcode of her cell. The door yawned opened and he stepped aside. She entered without protest and listened as the door shut behind her. Without turning for clarification, Rey knew she was alone. Kylo Ren did not follow suit, like she had hoped.

Her face grew hot with shame and the perpetual embarrassment she carried like a scar.

Moving from the door, Rey plopped onto her bed insert and kicked off her boots. She clawed at the palls that hung over her tunic, yanking them free and throwing them into a heap upon the floor. Next was her tunic. Aggravated, she peeled it off until she sat in the bodice and trousers of her uniform.

She threw herself onto the bed and curled into a ball. Her eyes began to burn with unshed tears as she stared into the darkness. Again, she yearned to be back on Jakku, running off Teedos, and bargaining angrily with fellow traders. But she wasn't. She was floating among the stars, dressed in the garb of the First Order.

_At what point had I taken sides?_ She wondered.

She thought of the BB unit and its incessant worrying chirrs. Her lips twitched in a subtle smile as she reflected the moment she had freed the astromech from tangling desert netting. He was thankful that she had, but when she turned away, he queried carefully her whereabouts as well as becoming inquisitive for aid. When she denied him help, he stated in a small, forlorn beep, " _I'm scared."_

"I'm scared, too." She whispered into the empty shadows.

* * *

_So distracting_. Kylo Ren scowled as he stared out into the window of his sleeping quarters. He had dressed down to just his trouser and boots, readying for a shower in hopes to alleviate the tension that sat on his neck and shoulders. He had cranked the environmental control unit down until his pale skin chilled from the cold. Just something to stave off her radiating energy he'd become inclined to seeking. No, he couldn't escape her and the pulsating Force now. It had stained him, perhaps scarring even his own vector of the Force.

_She was everywhere._

She lived in very air around him. She traveled the length of his veins. She invaded his breath. She shadowed his mind with confusion and distraction, and most importantly, _lust._ Kylo Ren tried not to think back to the sensation of her dream. How he seemed to play a part, even being entirely separate, in the unraveling bouts of their passion. He had made her come. He had elicited her intimate cries, burying into her as she buried into him with her nails. Furthermore, she had veered him from his set path. Initially, it was up to him to hunt down the Last Jedi, to destroy the Awakening so that all Force-sensitives were either dead or in the possession of the First Order. Now he had been side-tracked, assigned as her Master to train and strengthen her budding abilities. He had completely forgotten about the bigger picture, far too keen on the small detail that was she. An insurmountable desire had taken form, muddling the objective with feelings and ideas Kylo Ren _did not_ have time for.

If the Supreme Leader Snoke caught whiff of their unorthodox behavior, Kylo Ren would have to kill her and that was him merely being selfish. He knew not if Hux had the gall to destroy the girl in actuality. However, just to ensure himself, he would tend to her himself. One less thing General Hux had to sway in the matter. Decidedly, the men were at each other's neck on a daily occurrence. Kylo Ren was not Hux's chess piece where he placed anywhere he saw fit. He was also not to be ordered or controlled by _anything_ or _anyone_ , sans Supreme Leader Snoke. But even then, he only asked for _advice_ and _guidance,_ making sure he still worked alone if not in the company of the remaining Knights of Ren.

He turned from the window and went into his bathroom, readying the shower. Adjusting the temperature of the water, he waited until the steam diffused in the innards of its compartment before undressing and stepping under the scorching stream. He reflected as the torrents of water pelted him and flushed his skin.

_Rey_ , he told himself. _That is her name._

Albeit, he had never uttered it aloud and had no intentions to; it still tasted sweet, even when only a thought. He palmed the cold slick walls before him, lowering his head so that the blast of water could course over his crown and assault his neck and shoulders. He watched his dark hair fall forward, creating a wet curtain about his face, leading the falling water into thick tendrils down to the deck. He closed his eyes.

Kylo Ren had reaped a plethora of information when he dove into Rey's mind. Her name. Her story. Even the anguish and desperation she carried almost like pride had come to him. He felt everything as though he was there by her side, bracing against the stinging sand and parching heat.

_She is a powerful girl_ , Kylo Ren concurred, for still, he had not obtained the map or even a glimpse of the droid that harbored it.

Kylo Ren would be lying to say he didn't want to be her Master. He'd be lying to say she wasn't a gift and a curse. He would by lying to say the desire wasn't mutual.

A pulsating began to emit around him, shaking him from his thoughts. Kylo Ren lifted his head and listened to the unfolding waves of energy.

Initially, he thought it to be Rey, prodding her abilities as she sat alone in her cell, but as soon as the thought arose, his theory was cut short.

_Kylo Ren…._ a thin, disembodied voice resonated through him. Though the water was still steaming around him, the scorch of it vanished and surrendered to a biting cold. Quickly, Kylo Ren cut the shower and began drying himself. The Force pull that rippled through him was not of Rey's derivative, but of Supreme Leader Snoke, summoning him.

He dressed into a new uniform, donned his helmet and hurried out into the corridor, brushing passed a trio of Stormtroopers swathed in the bold red lights of the passageway. As sense of impatience grated him as he proceeded for the chamber which housed the holographic Supreme Leader. Finally, he entered the vast space, spotting both General Hux and the Supreme Leader Snoke. One and the other acknowledged Kylo Ren's arrival. Hux then turned away and offered slight bow towards Snoke, before taking his leave.

Both Knight and General's path paralleled as one came and the other went, traversing the narrow walkway to and from their leader. Neither man spoke as they brushed shoulders. But judging by the lengthy gait and sour grimace upon the General's face, Kylo Ren knew he had been tended to like a child caught meddling.

The simmering wrath beneath Kylo Ren's impassive disposition threatened to crack the integrity of his control. He hadn't noticed that his hand had rose, tightening around the hilt of his lightsaber as the General neared. They passed and Kylo Ren came shortly to a stop before the Supreme Leader Snoke, bowing and rendering his respects.

"Yes, Supreme Leader." He began, evenly.

"The girl," Snoke started at once. "Tell me, Kylo Ren. Is she learning?"

Kylo Ren straightened from his bow, eyeing his leader. "Yes."

"Good," Snoke meant to whisper, but the nature and design of the chamber amplified his response. "How much longer until she is ready?"

Kylo Ren paused as he considered his answer, "This type of training…,takes time." He said. As a Master himself, Snoke should realize teaching an Apprentice the art of the Force was not feasible in a day's worth. It took time, patience, and _a matter of bonding and establishing trust._

"I understand," Snoke seemingly hissed, "But we do not have the luxury to take our time in the matter. She needs to be ready. The Resistance only grows stronger."

Kylo Ren nodded, "Yes, Supreme Leader. I understand." It was evident General Hux had brought this to the supreme's attention. Once again, Kylo Ren felt the undertows of his rage begin to boil and rise at the thought of Hux's attempted derailment and cursed inwardly.

He watched the flickering visage of Snoke lean back into his seat. "Very well, Kylo Ren. I expect to be updated on her progress. If she is as powerful as you claim, use it to accelerate her abilities. Manipulate her in the ways of the Dark. There is no room for weakness, no room for the Light."

Kylo Ren took in a steady breath as he nodded. "I will." He bowed and turned away, but the sound of Snoke stopped him short.

"Kylo Ren," his voice sibilated.

The Knight turned to regard his leader.

"You've been quiet since the girl has arrived. I cannot feel you among the Force." It was true. Kylo Ren prevented himself from channeling the energy freely. He knew Snoke would be watching and in order to protect himself and his Apprentice, he only showed the less startling glimpses of their training. _Her fumbling the baton, dressed as a Knight of Ren._ It took a great deal of effort on Kylo Ren's part to even conceal _his own waning of conviction_.

"She is stronger than she looks," Kylo Ren deceived; though, not entirely. "I'm merely protecting myself from her."

"Then you must harness _her_ and _that power._ " Snoke gripped the armrest of his chair with boney hands. "Do not let her slip into the Light."

* * *

General Hux ambled about the space of the Star Destroyer's bridge. Among him, the crew worked silently, tracking the Resistance and managing the fleet of the Empire as they drifted in orbit. He paused before the window, admiring the spray of stars and stretching lengths of space before him. Hux was in a good mood, having successfully diverted Snoke's attention to Kylo Ren's newest objective; _that scavenger girl._ His efforts were to show Snoke that Kylo Ren was nothing but a loose cannon, and needed to be weaned of his position in power. Or at the very least, _managed strictly._

Behind him, the entrance to the bridge yawned open. He turned in time to see the ignited and blinding flash of Kylo Ren's obstreperous crimson lightsaber as it filled the room with its sparking havoc and frightening Hux's crew members.

At once, the cloaked figure began to rend and hack, driving the erratic blade into panels, computers, and consoles. He even went as far as to scar the deck with his weapon, sending sparks flying and eliciting shouts of hysterics as the crew scrambled to remove themselves from his destructive path.

Stunned, the General stumbled back as Kylo Ren and his menacing red band neared. He watched the Knight drive the blade effortlessly through sheets of metal, flooding the bridge with cacophony screeches and rupturing apart the very devices Hux relied on to control the Star Destroyer.

And as sudden as the rage took hold of the Knight, it came to an abrupt secession, right before General Hux. With the blade still charged, crackling with raw instability, Kylo Ren disengaged the weapon and loomed forward, growing in height as he accosted the General of the First Order. He towered the Hux by several inches and also didn't help that he hid behind his hideous mask, designed into such a disturbing visage.

"Stay out of my way," the modulated growl carefully whispered, rooting Hux in place as the distorted breath of Kylo Ren seethed from the mask's filters like thick smoke.

Before Hux could gather his wits, Kylo Ren turned away, sweeping his cloak across the very smoldering fissures he had carved into the floor.

* * *

A startling pulse emitted causing Rey to jolt into an upright position. She had not fallen asleep yet for the mind regrettably offered not a second's solace. In a fretful disposition, she had lied upon her bed, reliving the fear of Takodana, the uncertainty when waking before Kylo Ren, and the inhibiting trepidation as she agreed to serve alongside the First Order. All these things were but prerequisite to the untimely blossoming of Rey's Force-sensitivity.

The pulse came again. This time with much more intensity as she sat staring into the darkness. It surged through her like a dull ache. She breathed against the discomfort and decided to ignore it, reducing it to the nature of her aforementioned Force-sensitivity. She hoped, at least.

A sound across the room diverted Rey's attention to the door. A steady red light that had been the only source of illumination began to flash. It turned green and the issuance of a bolt sliding into place knocked.

Rey stood.

She came to the door with the intent to press her hands against the surface just to listen, but as soon as she neared, it drew upward, opening a path out into the passage, into freedom. Acting cautiously, Rey stepped out into the corridor, glancing left and right. It was still veiled in red, placing Rey in stark contrast with her black gear.

_My uniform!_ She remembered, darting back into her unlocked cell. She quickly donned the remaining gear on, knowing if she looked the part of a Knight then it would be less likely to raise any suspicion once she was out among the crew.

Adjusting the tunic and her palls, she smoothed out her garb and returned to the corridor.

She had two options: left or right.

When she glanced left, the pulse waned. When she glanced right, it hummed through her, filling her with the proverbial ache.

She went left, using this technique to traverse the passageways until she was led to a small compartment with a ladder well. The pulse diverted her upward. Quickly, she moved taking the steps two, three at a time until her heart pounded and she was breathless. Finally the signal exploded through her head, ceasing her ascent along the next collection of steps. She backed off, relieved to feel the ache subside. On her right, she discovered a hatchway, which she carefully drew open and slipped through, emerging into another corridor. At this point, Rey realized they would all look the same, even more so under the red lights. In reality though, she was pleased that the pulse hadn't admonished her, basically, as her progress through the passageway.

Flitting silently but quickly, Rey paused in a shadowy insert off of her path. A closed door erected on her right and she leaned against it to catch her breath. She hadn't caught sight of any of the crew, not even Stormtroopers who, she assumed, roved the passageways at all times. She steadied her breath, reaching with her mind to find the pulse's signal so she knew where to go next, but when she did, she found emptiness. The signal had vanished entirely.

A moment of panic seized her. She hadn't been paying attention to her route, too focused on obeying the coordinates supplied by the pulse and the aches. She couldn't go back the same way, not without getting lost.

_What if I get caught?_ Her mind raced.

The door behind her slid open, dumping her into a dimly lit room and shutting so quickly, she had to pull her legs to keep from getting caught. A veil of familiarity came over her at once, though Rey was certain she had never seen this room beforehand. She shifted on her posterior, sitting upright as she began looking around.

It was someone's personal quarters, a berthing of the sort. A place to rest, and eat, and provide privacy. It was furnished with an elongated, cushioned _thing_. Rey had never seen something like it. A single step ascended, separating one room from another. Across the way was a barren table centered in a small kitchen with a sink and cabinets. Further to the right was another opening that ended with a floor to ceiling window. She listened carefully before standing. If someone was in the space with her, she assumed her entrance was enough to rouse attention.

"Hello?" She cautiously called out only to be met with silence.

Excitedly, she turned her attention to the furnishing, pressing her hands into the square cushions and the slipping them through the crevices of their separation. She plopped down, reveling in how it accepted her weight in a comforting embrace. She squirmed and sighed heavily, ne'er having experienced such comfort in an inanimate object. Flopping onto her side, Rey buried her face into the fabric and inhaled. A scent followed.

_Kylo Ren._

Rey sat up at once, lurching away from the furniture. She stood as her heart hammered painfully against her ribcage. Without confirmation, Rey was certain she had led herself to the very chamber in which her Master inhabited. Now, taking responsibility suddenly altered the dynamic of her situation. _She could have fled. She could have used the Force to talk her way into a TIE- fighter._ But instead, she came here, to a place where she would encounter Kylo Ren.

He would feel her, she knew. There seemed to be a tether between Master and Apprentice; a variable connection that somehow tuned them into one another. She was sure of this because of the steady rhythm that had followed her around since she dreamed about him. It only solidified her suspicion during their spar, when Kylo Ren had gotten _so close to her_ , that it forced two separate heartbeats to unify as one. Upon separation, the percussions staggered, ultimately sundering the alignment and returning to the dull hum that floating around in her head. Perhaps it was that very vibration that led her here.

Undeterred and even less afraid, she sat down and waited.

* * *

**[A/N]: Shoooooooooooooooooooooot! How do you think Kylo Ren will react once he discovers a patient and inquisitive Rey in his chamber?! Especially after what he did to the Star Destroyer's bridge! Thanks for the reviews, as always! I love to hear what you guys think!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter contains a smut scene. If you do not wish to read this, avoid the last horizontal line and below. Alright, let's get started! *rubs palms vigorously*

 

* * *

Kylo Ren stalked the red corridors in a fashion that sent any crew member he neared skirting to the side of the passageway. They gave way, cautiously offering their greetings to the superior officer as he headed for his personal quarters.

Destroying the bridge was nothing. General Hux was nothing.

The First Order was _nothing_ without the Knights of Ren. And with this, Kylo Ren would see to it that Hux knew the wrath that was to befall him should he intervene again.

He flew around the corner, coming upon his door and freezing in place.

 _Rey_ , he thought, casting a glance behind him, down the long narrow path of the corridor. She was thinking of him and by the unfamiliar emptiness that revealed itself to Kylo Ren, she had managed to keep out everyone except for him. For that, he was relieved. One less thing to report back to Snoke and have to explain. How she managed this feat was unknown but impressive, no less. He punched in the pass code of his door and stepped inside.

The lights were out. He didn't recall turning out the lights, only dimming them.

But it did not take long for the Knight to feel her essence that was softly obscured by the shadows.

Reflexively, he had gripped the hilt of his weapon. His disposition was already inflamed and still raw after the ordeal involving _General Hux_. A statement needed to be made if Kylo Ren intended on keeping his new Apprentice.

He relaxed his hand, dropping it back to his side.

"I can feel you." His deep modulated whisper spoke into the darkness.

"I know," she replied back softly. "I can feel you, too."

Kylo Ren carefully came forward, using the Force to aid in navigating the thick shadows. He anticipated the rising step into his kitchen. Her energy was not far. He continued further, leading a path into his bedroom.

As soon as his figure reached the threshold, a light flicked on.

Along his bed, she sat closest to his nightstand. She looked exhausted. Surely the sparring, the corrosive unknown and being within the constant company of Kylo Ren, who knew he was difficult even for himself, had begun to take a toll on the young girl.

"Who am I?" She suddenly queried.

Kylo Ren studied her with his steady, and rather predatory, gaze.

"I don't know who you are," he lied, flexing his jaw. Beneath his mask, she wouldn't know of this simple deception.

"Alright then," she breathed. "Then who are you?"

"My name is Kylo Ren," he began. "I am a Master of the Knights of Ren and second to Supreme Leader Snoke in the army of the First Order." Saying this allowed a swelled a sense of arrogance and spite within Kylo Ren. He hoped these very words wound their way back to the likes of General Hux.

"What are you going to do with me?"

He reached up and disengaged the lock of his helmet. He then shed the armor and tucked it beneath his arm. He did not answer her as he strode towards the wash stall.

Drawing her a fresh towel, Kylo Ren began the shower. Uncertain at the temperature she preferred, he adjusted it to be several degrees cooler than what he liked. When he shut the stall door and turned, he was surprised to find she had removed herself from the spot along the bed and now stood before him.

 _Lithe and quiet,_ he noted.

Kylo Ren glanced down at the towel clutched in his hand then back to Rey. He proffered the fabric and she took it wordlessly.

"I'll have a droid deliver food for the two of us," he said, side-stepping passed her. "Get yourself cleaned up."

He entered the commune area, keeping the light dim and summoned a droid to bring food for the evening. He heard the shower door slam shut and the discord of water droplets thunder softly along the wash stall's deck.

* * *

Rey was head to toe in a frothy lather that smelled liked pine wood and damp earth. She scrubbed until her skin felt raw, rinsed and scrubbed some more. Having removed the braided knots along her head, Rey squeezed a generous glob of creamy liquid soap into her palm and worked it into a lather through her scalp. In a matter of minutes, Rey had cleaned herself, but found a less-than-enthusiastic sense at stepping out of the shower. Instead, she sat down along the wash stalls floor, drawing her knees in and wrapping her arms around her legs. Closing her eyes, she dropped her head back against her shoulders and breathed carefully through the falling water. She reflected.

She knew now that the beginning of _her_ story went further back than the most recent transgressions she had encountered. It had happened before BB-8, before Finn, before this Force-sensitivity. It appeared history was unraveling at a startling pace around her. Though she wished different, she were much apart of its significant birth than ever. But finding that moment, that moment where it ultimately began, no matter how hard she tried, was impossible. Her youngest memory was one she avoided at all cost. For too long, she allowed that memory to define her.

_An unwanted orphan girl._

There was much mystery to that story, she could feel it. However, _accessing it and understanding_ , she could not. It was as if she merely manifested into existence, which surely was not the case. She had parents, perhaps friends; a lineage that seemed lost and forgotten somehow.

She pressed her forehead into the fold of her arms and closed her eyes, allowing the water to massage her neck and shoulders. What Rey feared the most was that the answers were there, that it was _her_ own way of protecting herself by forgetting. But from what? From who!

_Her family?_

_Her past?_

Carefully, Rey recalled the terrifying vision she had been exposed to when she touched that dreadful lightsaber back at Maz's castle. The images and the emotions; they all seemed to braid together. It was picking them apart that proved difficult.

Kylo Ren, she remembered, had been apart of those very images and visions, but as a premonition or a memory? She felt it within her that _this_ was not the first time she had laid eyes on him. She had experienced several moments of distinct clarity, almost comforting familiarity when in the company of her Master.

 _Master_ , she spat the word inwardly. _She hated that term._

But if Kylo Ren had known her in a previous time, he gave no indication.

 _What if he is lying?_ Rey considered. _What if he knew more about her than he led on?_

The water had begun to lose its warmth and her fingers and toes took on a wrinkly appearance. Rey reached up and shut off the faucet and pushed the stall door open. Steam had clouded the mirror and below that was her towel. She dried herself and wrapped it closely around her body before peering into Kylo Ren's bedroom. Her uniform was no where in sight.

If he was lying, perhaps she could convince him into telling her everything he knew. If not convince, maybe…

_Maybe..., she could force it out of him._

* * *

After scanning the bedroom, Rey realized that robe draped across the bed was intended for her. She hung up the towel and slipped on the warm fabric, tying it tightly around her small waist before braving the whereabouts of Kylo Ren.

She drew the bedroom door back and slowly revealed the kitchen area. The fragrance of food greeted and she widened the door more willingly.

She found him seated in nothing but trousers and boots.

For a second, she considered slamming the door shut and taking shelter in the bathroom for the effect of seeing him shirtless had produced. Instead, her grip tightened along the doorknob and locked her gaze to the table before him.

"What's all this?" She asked, eyeing the array of steaming contents.

"Dinner," Kylo Ren muttered as he decanted himself a small glass of a deep purple liquid.

A plate for her had been set on the opposite side of the table. She went towards the respective chair and seated herself. Her stomach grumbled and whined with such an unnatural volume, it caused Kylo Ren to pause mid-pour and glance up at her.

"Help yourself." He gestured with a nod. Rey dug in at once.

She piled the food in heaps, sampling every possible dish offered. When her plate was complete, a glass of water appeared by her side.

She dove in, stabbing anything and everything she could fit into a single bite. She gnawed on the meats, dipped her biscuit through a thick gravy, and chased modicums of vegetables with her fork after she cleaned her first plate. Rey did not stop there. Piling in a round of seconds, the first wave of food did not slow down her appetite. She tore through it with the same starving mannerism as the first until finally, she became lethargic almost at once.

Kylo Ren had remained quiet, observing how this _scavenger_ reacted to these mountainous portions of food, she assumed. He took small sips of his dark purple drink, alternating between that and a simple glass of water.

Rey felt like she was going to pop. If Kylo Ren wasn't sitting across from her, she _would_ have licked the plate clean.

Sitting back, and having to ensure her robe didn't slip open, Rey respired heavily.

_She was so full!_

"What is that?" She queried, eyeing the tall bottle of purple liquid next to Kylo Ren's small, squat of a glass.

"Something to take the edge off," he murmured, gazing down at the liquid contents.

"Oh really?" She implored, "May I have some?"

She watched a twitch in the corner of Kylo Ren's mouth before he shook his head. "It's too strong for you." He negated.

"Even just a taste?" She pressed.

" _Even just a taste._ "

Rey mused for a moment. She had _several_ edges to take off. From being captured, to trouble sleeping, to becoming an Apprentice to the Knights of Ren all in a matter of days.

"I think I deserve _just a taste_ ," she concluded, absorbed in thought.

Kylo Ren considered this, dropping his gaze unto the glass once more.

"Fine. Come here."

Rey stood at once and came to his side. A sense of comfort enveloped between them. And Rey knew _them_ , because she felt him through the Force. Though he indicated no _physical_ gesture of this, she sensed a _willingness_ at her close proximity.

He held the small glass up, no taller than her thumb but a bit wider. It was just enough for a quick gulp.

" _Sip it_ ," he stated carefully as she took gentle purchase on the tiny glass.

She brought the rim to her lips and as instructed, _sipped_ it.

Initially, it tasted sweet and thereafter it burned a little. She licked her lips as she swallowed, handing back the little glass to Kylo Ren who watched her attentively.

"That wasn't so b-," and the world she knew pitched off its axis and into a disorienting fashion. Her vision wobbled and shuddered while she faltered in place.

Kylo Ren rose at once, taking her firmly into his arms to keep her from spilling to the floor. She felt limp against him like every muscle in her body melted away into a soup.

But despite all of these things, Rey felt _amazing._

Her heavy lidded eyes, not from fatigue but of relaxation, blinked slowly as she clutched Kylo Ren's bare shoulders. He steered her back to her chair and sat her down carefully. She squeezed him, admiring how warm he felt beneath her palms and how firm he was.

 _He's strong._ Her thoughts reeled.

As he pulled away, her hands slid down his arms, almost tasting the raw, undulated energy that coursed through him. She wondered if he felt this very thing within her.

"I do," he answered, coming to a crouch before her.

Rey smiled and then blinked, righting her wavering vision and sending the doubled image of Kylo Ren into one. She reached up and grabbed her glass of water, downing it with several deep gulps. This didn't help, not right away at least.

"I told you it was too strong for you." Kylo Ren muttered as he looked her over. His eyes lingered along her lips before drifting downward, noting the deep split that was the opening of her robe. _His robe._ At the end where it opened out were her bare legs and feet, still pink from the warm shower.

A pensive look shadowed Rey's countenance. "What was that?"

Kylo Ren glanced over his shoulder to the tall bottle that house the inebriating purple liquid.

"Tarisian ale." He told her. "It's quite strong. I warned you."

She smiled as she looked upon him. It grew when he looked back.

But suddenly, it waned until falling entirely as her brow knitted deeply.

"I feel like I've known you my entire life." She admitted, "Why is that?"

His head shook. "I have no idea."

She suddenly leaned forward, capturing his face within her hands. Her eyes bore into him, imploring voicelessly to release what secrets he harbored.

_The answers are in there._

"I _know_ you." She beseeched, staring wildly into his brown eyes.

He rose his hands, grasping her wrist gently, and pulling them away from his face.

"You do not know me." He responded, coming to a stand. He released her hands as he turned, going back to his seat from across the table.

"You know something." Rey snarled, suddenly frustrated with it all. "You know something and you're not telling me!" She stood, slamming her hands down onto the table, and rattling the plates.

Kylo Ren was not ruffled by her sudden outburst, and calmly reclined in his chair. A muscle in his jaw ticked as she glared into his indifferent visage. He did not speak and this only infuriated her more.

She had forgotten that she was slightly drunk when she stood for her legs wobbled a bit, but she ignored it. She had suddenly lost interest in playing the victim, in following orders and wearing that stupidly hot drab of a uniform. She was tired of trying to figure out the Force, her abilities, and her provenance. Even Kylo Ren.

"Then what is it I'm doing here? What is _all this?_ " She gestured with a wide sweep of her arm at everything that surrounded her. Kylo Ren stood then, bracing against the table in a similar fashion.

"You're here because you agreed to serve the First Order." His voice was cold and flat. "You're here because you are my _Apprentice._ "

Rey scoffed, feeling her face flushed with ire. "Oh, please!" She spat, "We both know I'm much more than your _Apprentice._ "

"Are you?" He narrowed his eyes, catching her by surprise with his query. He began a slow orbit about the table.

"I'm quite sure," her trembling voice seethed, "I'm not a fool, Kylo Ren. I _know._ "

He was closer now, speaking in a daringly low voice. "You know _what?_ "

It was becoming difficult to think, Rey blinked and blurted,"You saw." The anger that had fueled her tantrum was quickly receding, crawling back into her mind like an ocean tide the closer he became.

He was before her now, towering over her and staring straight into her, challenging her to continue.

"I did." He admitted shamelessly, nodding. "I think you wanted me to see."

Rey tried to breathe, as if the air trapped in her lungs was too frighten to release.

"It was just a dream," she barely whispered.

"Was it, Rey?" He asked with a tilted head and slitted eyes.

Hearing her name from _his_ lips had her stumbling back, bumping the chair aside as she moved away. But Kylo Ren wasn't letting her get too far. Without looking, he knocked her chair from his path and it fell back with a short _clap!_ He continued to stalk forward.

Rey had now backed herself into the bedroom while her heart slammed painfully in her chest. A pulse of energy bumped into her right, steering her towards the left until something stationary buckled her legs.

She plopped down onto his bed, wide eyed and terror struck as his proximity slowly dwindled. He stopped in front her, lowering himself to plant both hands on either side of her hips. The air between them distinguished and all Rey could focus on was him. His breath. His eyes, how they wandered, and the heat that came in tow. He drew a knee up, parting her legs as he crawled over her, suspended above. As he neared, stealing away the space between with his entire existence, Rey drew away. Not because she didn't want him, but _because_ she wanted him.

"You haven't stopped thinking about it." He whispered, raising another knee which mirrored the actions of its prior. Rey was propped on her elbows. Her legs were slowly spreading apart. She was bare beneath it all and could feel the cold air prickle the innards of her thighs, cooling the wetness that had blossomed between her legs. Her head shook.

_No, she hadn't stopped thinking about it._

_"_ You want it, don't you?" His brow twitched down as he spoke, certain of his statement.

Rey breathed, "I do." She felt herself nodding, felt how her elbows moved and dropped her back onto the bed. She felt her fingers playing the knot of her robe, loosening it slowly. "Don't you?"

Kylo Ren had lowered his gaze to watch her hands work the tie. He nodded, glancing up to meet her eyes as he spoke. "I do."

The tie came undone, but her hands were frozen.

_She wasn't sure if she could do this._

There was fear and need. They coalesced and made an intoxicating inhibitor, far more potent than any Tarisian ale on the market.

Kylo Ren either felt or saw her apprehension, for he rose a hand and carefully parted the folds of the dark robe.

The outside air kissed her navel, spreading over her hips and sternum, budding her nipples. She closed her eyes when Kylo Ren lowered his head. He kissed the valley of her breast, moving his lips over to claim one of the small buds into his mouth.

Rey squeezed her eyes shut and bit down on her lip. Her body triggered, arching upward to press further into his mouth. Meanwhile, a hand had traced a delicate path up her thigh, teasing the flesh with whispering touches as he neared her wet center.

A staggering moan seeped passed Rey's clenched teeth as she fisted the bed cover beneath her. He hadn't done anything, but Rey was certain she was about to burst. He moved to the other side, laying worship to her nipple with a hot mouth and wet tongue. Down below, the hand skirted her groin and her sodden folds, tickling the skin and eliciting a deep bellied whimper inside Rey. She spread her legs further, lifting her hips when she felt his fingers brush near. He ran the pad of his thumb down her entrance, luring a stream of noises from her. He delved a little deeper, still attentive to her breast as he gently worked her entrance.

Her lips lifted and rolled as he pressed the heel of hand against the apex of her sex. There was something startling raw, a tiny pinpoint of heighten pleasure he pressed against.

 _Oh, Kylo..._ She moaned inwardly, lifting her hands to knot her fingers into his dark hair. As if startled by her thoughts, Kylo Ren sat back on his knees, leaving a writhing Rey dumbfounded. Her eyes dropped to the obvious straining that issued against his black trousers. The room drew quiet as Kylo unfastened a snap. He pushed the trousers down, undressing until he knelt naked before her.

She couldn't help but look, for it was the first she'd ever seen it in the flesh.

He was thickset and it was flushed more than the rest of his pale body. By the way it sprang free, swaying against its weight, Rey determined it was also heavy. This alone frightened her more. He came back down onto her, resting atop gently but not surrendering his full weight upon Rey. She felt him hot against her thigh, pressing and twitching. She drew her knees up, squeezing his hips and writhing against him.

She swallowed thickly, cutting short another moan that tore through her. "I want you." Her hands were tingling.

Tears burned her eyes. _She was so scared, but so ready..._

Kylo Ren buried his face under her chin as he adjusted himself. He had grown awfully quiet. The only admission he made were his quick breaths she felt against her flesh. She watched an arm reach below and the heavy weight of his cock vanished, then there was a invasive pressure at her entrance. Rey stilled, squeezing her eyes again and bracing for the pain.

He pushed into her wet entrance, slick from her own arousal. Her body strained to accept him as a stinging discomfort throbbed between her legs. Rey had been holding her breath, trying to ignore it, but her lungs expelled. A guttural whine punched passed her lips and her legs squeezed his hips. It didn't hurt as much as she reckoned it would, but it didn't feel good, either.

_Wasn't this supposed to feel good?_

Kylo Ren drove himself into her, ripping through something that sent an echo of pain resonating through her. Had she the air to yelp, she would have. Her hands, though, had flew up to grasp Kylo Ren's shoulders

"Rey, look at me." His voice came through the pain. The inflection of his timbre voice scratched with need.

She obeyed, prying her eyes open to regard him. He claimed her mouth with his.

"Channel it," he whispered against her lips, penetrating her further despite feeling as if she had no room left. "The pain. Channel it."

Rey blinked, puzzled at what he could possibly mean, and then it dawned. Her legs stopped trembling as she focused.

Instead of pushing with the Force, Rey pulled. She opened herself to the pain of raw intimacy. There was stirring undertow, a current beneath the layer of pain she was feeling. She pulled again, absorbing it and channeling it through her. Between her legs, Kylo Ren moaned and pushed himself _even deeper_. She felt him hit the hilt of her womanhood and she cried out, but not out of injury. The pain was fading and flooding her veins with something else; a vibration.

Her cinched walls began yielding to him, "Do you feel that?" She whispered. Rey was sinking into the new energy now; the pain was gone.

Kylo Ren withdrew him, sliding into her a second time, and a third, and she moaned. "Oh God," she wept with pleasure, " _Do you feel that?"_

"Yes," he grunted, burying his face into her neck again. The rhythm of his hips began to increase, withdrawing himself and sheathing again and again. He filled her slowly, driving his length within her before carefully receding. Rey could barely contain the noises she created. She tried to keep her mouth closed, but it kept falling open to release another staggering moan.

Kylo Ren snaked an arm beneath her just then, raising her up from the bed and placing her along his lap. She clutched his shoulders, meeting his lips once more before sinking down up him. A moan rumbled within him and the steady hum Rey had been experiencing since she fed from the pain, ascended. It ricocheted between her and Kylo Ren, rippling the energy around them like tumultuous wave.

"Something's happening," Rey gasped as she felt the tightening of her walls. She wrapped her arms around Kylo Ren's neck, rolling her hips forward in complimenting rhythm of his own. A pulse was rising, stacking on top of its predecessor, heating and flexing her core. She breathed in short burst as the waves of energy rolled and crashed within and around her and Kylo Ren. His hands dropped to her hips, squeezing and grinding them as his own breath tore a ragged emission from his lungs.

His tip was rubbing against something Rey did not initially feel lying on her back. Whatever it was had been inducing the foreign sensation that now threatened to steal the air from her lungs and the words from her lips. Her face suddenly grew hot, spreading down her neck and chest, burning her ears. She tried to ignore it and this caused her body to shake.

Kylo Ren's grip was so severe along her hips now, she wasn't sure where she ended and he begun. He was swelling inside of her, engorging and pressing against her walls.

"Wait!" Rey cried, pleading with herself but she couldn't hold if off any longer. It came, shattering her with waves of ecstasy until her bodied trembled and quaked. Kylo Ren was not far behind, for in a final thrust he buried himself and stifled a startling moan. She could feel him spilling into her, twitching with pleasurable release as her own climax milked him. His hands gripped her body, anchoring one hold about her waist as the other rose to her neck, pulling her down to his mouth. They kissed until Rey was certain they would both suffocate before climbing down from their apex.

He shifted within her, pulling out as he laid down. His arms brought her with, turning her so that Rey faced him. His dark curls were damp and his face and chest were flushed and glistening with sweat. Within her, Rey's heart hammered, sending that sated thud resonating through her. Though he was sticky and hot, she scooted closer, hiding her face in the curve of his neck while his arms wrapped around her.

The hum had depleted now and the waves of the Force had receded into the back of her mind. She respired heavily, feeling the beckon and call of sleep. She didn't fight the heaviness of her eyes as they drooped low. Resting an arm along Kylo Ren's side, Rey closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.

* * *

**[A/N]: I am so sorry this was so long. I hadn't realized the girth of it until...well until I submitted it. I dont know how you readers feel about hefty chapters, considering reading and reading and reading can be a pain. So if you'd like, I can start hacking them up and submitting smaller chapters. It's up to you. Other wise, I'm gonna word dump on yaaalll! Thank you for the patience and the read!**


	8. Chapter 8

The bedroom was an unnatural silent, so quiet it was deafening for Rey. She'd grown accustomed to various sounds and calls of desert life, and now separate of it, was disinclined to its emptiness. Growing up on Jakku had permanently altered how she slept and for how long. Not a moment passed when she wasn't on constant guard. Whether day or night, the shifting sands were scouring with ruffians in search for exchangeable parts. While some went at night to avoid the harsh desert sun, others took to it for different means. And with this detail, she had become quite the light sleeper. Any sound whether is be the call of wind captured between steep dunes or a luggabeast who had drifted too close to her encampment, she was sure to hear it.

Now that she lied wide awake, she could only focus on one thing; the resting Knight beside her. Even in the dark, she could see the slow rise and fall of his shoulder. He'd fallen asleep facing her, their limbs entangled and their chest pressed. It felt good, Rey had realized, to reside in the arms of another. She'd never so much as hugged someone, much less fallen intimate with one. It'd happened so fast, but surely the relationship between a Master and his Apprentice should never arrive at such antics.

But it had, and Rey would be lying to say she didn't enjoy it.

Moving carefully, Rey slowly moved her arm so that it rested against Kylo's chest. She palmed him gently and readjusted until she felt his heartbeat.

 _There_. She closed her eyes as she listened. The same rhythm that hounded her every waking moment, staggering with its beat and ceaseless throb had finally been discovered. It was _his_ heartbeat that she had been feeling and now, upon immediate clarity, they had finally aligned themselves. Through her fingertips, she felt her own mirroring the soft and steady percussion of Kylo Ren's. She wondered if the Force had any sway in this matter or was it because of their proximity.

Without cognition of her actions, Rey began pushing with the Force. In her head, it enveloped him like a thick smoke, surrounded him and sought through him. She watched the ripples of energy through her mind's eye, spreading from her fingertips. Then she entered.

It was black at first, almost blinding darkness.

_How was she supposed to do this again? How did he manage to find inside others what she wanted to find inside of him?_

_What was she looking for?_

"Answers," Rey whispered, furrowing her brow as she centered her focus.

She thought of questions upon questions, and still, his mind was pitch as black.

 _How could he be thinking of nothing?_ She rebuked in disbelief. _Not even dreaming?_

Then came the visions. As if spurred by the simple inquisition, Rey saw flashes of colors and heard snippets of sounds. It all tore through her mind like a freighter into light speed. It was dizzying and thrilling, all the same. She felt the emotions accompanied by the sounds, the smells, and the scenery. She pulled herself closer to Kylo Ren's warm frame as if stepping into his dream world would somehow leave her physically behind. She shut her eyes to keep from becoming too disoriented.

Finally, the visions came to a stop, bringing Rey into a standstill and allowing her to focus.

_When she opened her eyes, she was looking down at her hands; her tiny hands. Dirt had collected beneath the short nails as they planted themselves firmly against the ground. She stood and wobbled around until a pair of considerably hirsute legs panned into her view. Her own mouth opened wide as a giggle peeled through the air. She charged forward, wrapping her small arms around the hairy calves as a proverbial chuffing sound issued above. A matching pair of arms came down, swooping Rey weightless from the ground. She gathered the fur into harmless fist as she clambered upward, scaling the beast with ease and comfort until finally perching along, Rey quickly realized, the Wookie's shoulders. She palmed the soft fur along the forehead as an anchor point as the Wookie grasped a hold of her ankles and began walking. His gait swung her left and right as a fit of giggles tightened her tummy and resonated through the warm air. They were heading inside, having to duck substantially so both Wookie and child could clear the doorway._

" _Be careful with him, Chewie." A low but stern voice emitted from an unseen provenance. But as Rey turned her eyes to search, she watched as a very familiar, and rather young, Han Solo round the corner. Her stomach dropped at the sight alone. What was the infamous smuggler doing in Kylo's dream?_

" _He's fine!" Another voice began, but this time feminine in its tenor, followed suit through the same entryway Rey and Chewie emerged from. Rey's eyes were darting around, hoping to make sense of what reason Han Solo and Chewbacca could be stowed in the memory of Kylo Ren. And why was she so small? Who was she supposed to be? Her legs began to bounce up and down with impatience as those same small and dirty hands reached out for the woman in the doorway. When Rey was finally able to look, she saw a young woman with long chestnut hair and calculating eyes. She was beautiful, to say the least, and she reached up for the beckoning hands and gracefully plucked Rey from Chewbacca's shoulders._

" _Come on, Ben." The woman cooed._

Rey snapped free, seemingly ejecting herself from the vision with such a start her heart hammered painfully. She had yanked herself free from Kylo's embrace as she severed the connection. Now she resided on the far side of the bed, panting and bewildered. Much to her relief, Kylo Ren remained fast asleep, but now his countenance furrowed as if the pleasant images she had just witnessed were somehow _troubling_ for the Knight _._ She reached up to probe the sudden throbbing that issued at her temple and respired. Her head and heart were pounding but even still, _she did it_.

Rey had successfully read Kylo Ren's mind, _again!_ And not by accident, this time. Albeit, her questions were still unanswered.

Throwing back the covers victoriously, she padded quietly into the bathroom and drew herself a glass of water. She downed the contents and braved a look in the mirror. A pinkening had colored her cheeks and the images were still burning across her memory.

A small child, a Wookie. Han Solo and a woman she did not immediately recognize.

"Ben?" She whispered the query to her pensive reflection. "Who is Ben?" Instead of satiating her own curiosity, she added to it when delving into Kylo Ren's mind.

Turning the faucet back on, Rey splashed her face with cold water before returning to bed. She slipped under the sheets and slid close to Kylo Ren. He was warm against her as she carefully wrapped herself around him. He accepted her, even in his sleep, or perhaps slightly awake for his arm came around her shoulder and pulled her close. After a few minutes, his breathing slowed, indicating he'd fallen back to deep sleep.

As for Rey, she was too confused, alongside being well rested, to return to sleep. Every time she shut her eyes, she saw the back of that Wookie's head and young Han Solo.

 _Ben…,_ she thoughtfully reflected. A tiny boy with dirty hands and a Wookie for a friend.

 _Ben._ Rey had to be careful with her thoughts, knowing Kylo Ren was constantly peeking into her mind without warning. And she didn't blame him. Here she was probing into his in secrecy. All for the sake of answers.

The image of Han's visage came before her, smiling at the child perched so high above and the woman who assured him that his…

_You feel like he's the father you never had…. He would have disappointed you._

A not-so-distant memory echoed within her mind. Rey froze as the clarity took hold. Was that possible? Rey blinked quickly as her thoughts churned. Then that would make Ben...? She tilted her head as she contemplated the likelihood of it all and then shook it incredulously. While aboard the Millennium Falcon, Han made no indication he had a son and that _that_ son happened to be Kylo Ren. But why would he? Besides, he had just stole back the Millennium Falcon from two strangers fleeing Jakku. He had no reason to divulge such sensitive information...

But what if it was true? And was he aware his son was a leader in the First Order? How could a father allow his son to fall to far into the Darkness? Why wasn't he trying to save him? The questions seemed endless. Rey knew more than _anyone_ the importance of family.

 _This was it!_ Her thoughts reeled. _That was the answer to everything!_ She went through great feats to wait for hers. Albeit, at the time there was still hope.

 _Hope!_ Another thought seized her.

_Maybe, there is still hope..._

* * *

Rey could no longer feign sleeping. Her head was filling to the brim with ploys to steal Kylo Ren from the First Order. And anything else that might be holding him back from his family. She had no idea what time it was, or how many hours she had laid by his side, listening to his breathing and the alignments of their hearts. Finally, she turned towards him, sliding her hand across the sinewy planes of his abdomen. She fingered the dark tresses of his hair then began running her fingertip over the smooth skin of his bottom lip. In response, he turned his head away and shifted himself more comfortably. Rey scooted closer, pressing her naked body into his side.

She kissed the corner of his lips, then along his jawline. She followed the curve of his neck before nuzzling close enough to feel his pulse along her lips.

"It's time to wake up." She whispered against him. A hand rose to her shoulder and squeezed it before it trailed down her side and tickled her flesh. She squirmed under the harmless onslaught and hitched a leg over her hips. Her thigh brushed against something thickening and warm.

Kylo Ren opened his heavy lidded eyes and regarded her evenly. He sat up slowly as he turned towards Rey, looming over her until she pressed her back into the bed. Now holding himself above with a propped elbow, a silent Kylo Ren carefully took the sheets she had clutched to her bosom and gently pulled it from her grasp. He threw the thin sheet back until Rey was utterly exposed. Having never experienced such subjection, an insecure blush took over her cheeks and she looked away. Quietly, Kylo Ren marveled her body. She felt his fingertips ghosting along her knee and inner thigh, continuing upward across her navel and tracing a line along her sternum. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to the valley of her breast. At once, a stirring issued deep within Rey's core and her knees drew up reflexively. Her fingers splayed against the fabric beneath her until curling inward and taking the sheets into tight fists. He moved his mouth over to claim a pert nipple while slipping a hand between her thighs. He palmed her entire sex with his hand, applying enough pressure to elicit a soft moan from his prey. He worked it into slow, painstaking circles as he licked, sucked and nipped her budded flesh. Rey's hips rose and fell with every application. She trembled beneath him, arching her back and pressing against his mouth as he licked.

" _Please_ ," Rey breathed with gritted teeth as she shut her eyes.

She felt him move, parting her legs and nestling against her. When she opened her eyes, Kylo was there, claiming her mouth with his own. A new hungry took hold as Rey locked her fingers tightly into the curls of his dark hair. She rolled her hips against him, parting her legs further and sinking her teeth into his bottom lip. A low groan tore through him as he dug his fingers into her thighs. He yanked backed suddenly, sitting upon his knees. He grabbed Rey beneath her legs and dragged her closer. Taking himself by the hand, he ran the tip of his cock up and down Rey's entrance, ascending her already intensified desire. He painted her sex with her own arousal and watched as her slick entrance writhed beneath him. Still, her hips bucked and sank, struggling with every pinpoint of pleasure he tortured her with.

Finally, the pressure came and both Rey and Kylo Ren stilled as he pushed into her. The pleasure stole the air from her lungs and rolled her eyes back and lifted her from the bed. With gradual movements, Kylo Ren took her hips into his grasp, holding her in place as he rolled his own forward and eased her down onto him. Her body sheathed him completely and both partners took a moment to remember to breathe. He came down, resting atop her and working himself within. _This_ time, penetration was effortless. Rey found her heated core more yielding now than previously with a graven need to be filled. She pushed her hips into him in effort to obtain _every_ inch of him. Kylo Ren hissed, having tucked his head into her neck so she felt the guttural moan tremble through him as she did. Her hands came around, resting firmly against his shoulders. She closed her eyes and focused on the sensation of him inside her, on top of her, and the energy between them that flooded the room with a thundering resonation.

A hand came up and captured her chin, causing Rey to open her eyes with question. Kylo Ren was there, to meet her gaze.

"Look at me," he whispered, pushing himself to the hilt of her sex.

She obeyed, lifting her gaze to his. She wanted to kiss him, but decided against it when a flicker of fear quickly waved through her. But it wasn't the signature apprehension like she felt when running through the thicket of Takodana, nor was it the same tension she suffered from when she woke constrained to a metal device with a patient Kylo Ren before her. This fear was different. It was a fear for her soul, fear for what was becoming of her the longer she stared into Kylo Ren's eyes. But despite all this and the certainty of losing herself, she couldn't nor wanted to look away. Her heart, their hearts, hammered until Kylo Ren lowered his head to kiss her again and again. The fresh fear faded to the back of her mind as she tasted him through her lips and through the Force.

He catered to her until her body released and trembled in the throes of passion before satiating himself.

Afterwards, the two showered together and dressed into their proverbial black sweeping garb.

As Rey stood before the mirror, fashioning her hair in a trio of secure knots, Kylo Ren watched quietly. When she finished, he stood and placed himself behind her, resting his hands upon her shoulders. Together, they regarded their dark reflections as he spoke.

"You and I will be leaving the Star Destroyer," he turned his gaze inward, eyeing her profile as she continued to watch his reflection. "I will continue to train you when we reach our destination."

Rey tilted her head in innocent curiosity. "Why can't we continue here?" The last thing Rey wanted was new environments to acclimate to. After so long on one planet, it seemed the second she departed Jakku she was traversing the galaxy at a debilitating pace. She felt him squeeze her shoulder.

"We just can't." He released her and headed for the bedroom.

Quick to follow, Rey caught up just in time to watch him pick up his helmet. "Where are we going?"

"To another planet; Starkiller." He donned the equipment and fastened the lock. He came to her then until they were toe to toe.

" _Starkiller_ ," Rey growled in a mock-serious voice. She rose to her tippy toes and planted a quick kiss against his scarred mask.

"Dress warm," the deep modulated timbre stated.


	9. Chapter 9

Starkiller Base was a frigid, unforgiving planet. The harsh winds whipped and tossed at Rey's cloak as soon as she departed the command shuttle. Pausing upon the ramp and shielding her face from the threatening winds, she tried to stare out into the violent snowfall. It was useless, she realized. If the planet offered anything but a perpetual wall of white, she couldn't tell. Her arms came around her chest tightly, warding off the biting wind as Kylo Ren paused next to her. She felt him in her head for a second, saw a projected thought; an image of his cloaked figure stepping in and pulling her close, to shield her from the gelid winter. But it was only an image, a fleeting thought as if ripped away by the very winds that surrounded them. Rey knew why. Not only was she next to a Knight of Ren, but the Master and she was his Apprentice. Such behavior would warrant questions and pique curiosity.

On her left, Kylo Ren turned his head as if to sense something.

A figure appeared on Rey's right with a countenance she did not immediately recognize.

"Hello, _Ren_." A sharp and rather eloquent young man stood stiff at Rey's side. He ignored her with a pointed glare towards the Knight. She felt Kylo's hand wrap around her arm as he drew her back from the accosting individual.

"General Hux," the modulated and distorted seethed, loud enough to carry poison in its timbre, despite the roaring winds.

The General smirked, lowering his icy gaze onto Rey. "I see you have her dressed up in her little Knight's costume. How adorable."

Kylo Ren replied wordlessly, having drawn Rey to his flank until he divided both Rey and General. Concealed by his scarred mask, the Knight's focus appeared to be unwaveringly centered upon the General.

"Very well." Hux shifted on his feet so that he could once again gaze into Rey. "A pleasure , nonetheless, to finally meet you face to face. Ren likes to be stringent with his parties."

"I can see why." Rey spat, feeding off the agitation that rolled from Kylo Ren in torrents.

"Unfortunately, Kylo Ren must get back into orbit." Hux continued, "You'll be coming with me." He meant to sidestep around the Knight but was cut short. The snarl of an ignited lightsaber shot through the frigid air and narrowly sliced off the General's nose.

"I'm afraid not." Kylo Ren stated evenly, not a tremor of emotion upon his parlance. The crackling blade sputtered and fizzed with every fleck of snow it singed and close enough to cast a red glow against Hux's pale cheek.

If not for their connection, Rey would have assumed Kylo Ren had no qualms cutting down the General where he stood. But there was _something else_ preventing him. An unseen subject she couldn't quite define as she looked into his mind. Though the desire to hack and eviscerate the General was very apparent, a third party would not be pleased with Hux's destruction. Someone, or something, with enough authority to overrule even the Master of the Knights of Ren was listening.

" _I am second to Supreme Leader Snoke in the army of the First Order."_

Rey felt it then; the being in the void.

And it felt Rey.

She wrenched away the second she felt the resistance to leave, like an icy hold came through the Force to seize her. At once, Rey knew she had exposed herself to someone other than Kylo Ren, as well as the nature of their relationship. Worry twisted her gut, sending waves of unease and trepidation through her like tingling shocks. If what Rey felt was accurate, surely Kylo Ren felt it, too. Albeit, there was no indication and she wasn't about to delve into his mind a second time.

Before her, General did his best to hide the decided panic that threatened his visage. But there was little to be done with hiding the tremor that reigned his shoulders. He rose a careful hand, considered pushing away the hilt, but thought against it. It dropped to his side as Hux settled on taking a step back.

"As much as I despise having to look after your things, the Supreme Leader ordered me." Hux's hands rose to adjust the tailored black uniform as he spoke. He cleared his throat and tucked his hands behind him.

The crimson band of light disengaged and retracted back into the hilt. Kylo Ren squared his shoulders as he holstered the weapon. The anger was still there, hidden beneath the obsidian folds, the helmet, and even the Force. Rey alone could tell Hux was an ordinary man, who just so happened to have the galls to chastise Kylo Ren whenever the opportunity arose. If only he knew how disposable Kylo Ren saw him...

For a second time, Hux tried to move passed Kylo Ren and escort Rey to the quarters within Starkiller's stronghold, but his efforts were cut short by the abrupt placement of a gloved hand to his chest.

"A moment." Kylo Ren muttered, stepping back and turning towards Rey. He caught her by the arm firmly and steered her from the ramp, through the soft snow, and around the command shuttle. Once they cleared themselves of watchful eyes, Kylo Ren unfastened his helmet and yanked her close. He crushed his mouth to hers in a fervid and painful kiss. But even with the tumultuous bitter wind that battered incessantly, Rey still felt a blooming heat within her. She pawed at him, gathering and pulling along his tunic to bring him closer. But kiss ended suddenly, leaving Rey flushed and surrendered back into the biting wind. For a fleeting moment, Rey could taste fear. It was not her own, but of the Knight before her. He knew the second she felt it for he snuffed it out like a flickering flame and retracted himself from her embrace, as well as her mind. Flakes of snow were captured along his dark hair and his eyes smoldered as he looked upon her. She could feel him receding his energy and emotions for her, stowing them away into a deeper part of his subconscious where she couldn't reach. Rey's brow furrowed.

"Kylo," she whispered as he replaced his helmet. He ignored her, fastening the airlock as she came forward. She grasped him firmly amidst the thrashing wind and pelting snow. "Kylo, what's wrong?"

His hands came up, wrapping tightly around her small wrist. That hideous snouted mask, scarred with knicks and war-torn blemishes, was not Kylo Ren. She couldn't feel him any longer, not even with his hold against her. She wrenched free and stepped back, feeling the rise of apprehension ascend her spine. He drew his hood up and headed back towards the ramp, leaving her alone behind the command shuttle.

Confused and anxious, Rey waited for a moment to collect herself before following his footprints around the vessel. When she reached the bottom of the ramp, she spotted General Hux flanked by a couple of Stormtroopers. They noticed her and motioned their way. Her eyes eagerly searched for the proverbial frame that was Kylo Ren, but her efforts were in vain. She mounted the ramp, heading for General Hux and his Stormtroopers.

* * *

" _The girl_ ," The large figure with the scarred visage whispered intimately as he drew back into his chair. A smirk was attempted as the Supreme Leader Snoke looked down upon his prodigy, but it only twisted his thin lips into an awful scowl. "Is she ready?"

Kylo Ren shifted on his feet before Snoke, hands flexing at his side. "Not yet-," he was cut short.

"The Resistance is coming." Snoke appeared to be gazing skyward. "You know what to do."

"Yes." Kylo Ren said calmly. "With your guidance."

"Good," the dimly lit alcove cast a dull shine against the holographic depiction of the Supreme Leader Snoke. "This will a difficult trial, Kylo Ren."

"I'm ready." Kylo Ren dipped his head, taking measured breaths.

"I know you are." Snoke leaned forward. "But there is still a struggle within you, Kylo Ren. I see it now…the Light."

Kylo Ren did not reply. Lifting his eyes, he waited for the Supreme Leader to elaborate. Immediately, Kylo Ren thought of Rey, had opened himself to her for just a second. From the time the command shuttle landed, Kylo Ren knew something foreboding was on the rise. He shut her out, fortified the mental walls so that their connection waned. He didn't want her knew for fear at what was transpiring within the darkness. Though it did thin, it did not sever. All Kylo had to do was think of Rey and the Force would call upon her.

"I see her sometimes...," Snoke closed his eyes in reflection, "You care for her and she cares for you."

Kylo Ren considered denying this allegation, but did not. He could not hide everything and certainly not from Snoke, himself. He lowered his head again, feeling ashamed that he allowed it to get this far.

"Kylo Ren," the leader spoke intimately,"Your path does not include love. Love is a weakness. _Sentiment_ is what killed your grandfather. It is this very sentiment that weakens you now. She is Light. You are Darkness." A heavy silence befell the two Force-sensitive males.

At Kylo Ren's side, his hands clenched into trembling fist. He knew what Snoke was asking of him, in the same way he asked in regards of Han Solo. The Resistance were on their way; they both felt it.

"Supreme Leader," Kylo Ren finally found the strength to speak over his alarmed emotions. "I need more time."

"We are running out of time!" Snoke's voice boomed within alcove, no longer issuing the same gentle revere as before. His bony hands wrapped around the armrest of his throne as he leaned forward, looming above the silent Knight. "I want that girl destroyed."

* * *

General Hux had abandoned Rey to her own bidding within the hour of her arrival. Now she wandered the halls of the stronghold that was Starkiller base. Like the Imperial ship, the corridors were starkly similar in arrangement, meaning they all looked the same. At least, to Rey they did. She wasn't sure how long she'd been walking the passageways, ignoring every verbal greeting admitted by Stormtroopers. But eventually, she found herself among several stretches of windows on the port side of the corridor.

The windows provided Rey a view passed the locked door as she neared. She peered in carefully as several medical droids maneuvered about the white walls and tiles. Glinting metallic trays laid across matching counters with windowed cabinets erected on all sides. Above were harsh white lights too strong to glance at. Rey had never seen anything like it. Interested, Rey tapped on the glass, garnering the attention of a medical droid with cerulean optics. She waved and after a moment's consideration, it waved back. Rey felt herself smile as she diverted her gaze to the rest of the equipment, taking heed that the cerulean sensor droid exited through a door. Suddenly, a hiss issuance came from Rey's left.

Startled, she stepped back from the window to see.

The door to the medical bay was propped open, and standing along the threshold was the medical droid.

"Hello, Mistress." The digital tenor chirped with a tilted head. "Do you need assistance?"

Rey shook her head, "Oh, no. I'm just wandering around."

It lowered its cerulean sights onto her upper chest. Rey could hear the whirring of tiny variable scopes adjusting its zoom. After it was done with whatever it was doing, it stepped back and widened the door; a gesture to come inside.

Rey shook her head. "That's okay, really."

"My scans revealed that your hormone levels are unstable. As a medical droid, it is my responsibility to ensure you are well, Mistress."

Speaking words Rey didn't quite understand, she obliged and carefully entered the medical bay. As soon as she did, the droid lead her towards an examination bed. She plopped down onto it as the mech shuffled about the room, gathering supplies. When it finally came before Rey, it shined a light in each eye, then held out a mechanical hand. Unsure, Rey placed hers into its cold palm. Gently lifting her sleeve until her wrist was exposed, it produced a beam of blue light from its eyes and aimed it towards her wrist. Rey observed silently, admiring how despite its mechanical appendages and bulky arrangement, it was gentle with her.

Releasing her hand, it wheeled around and patted the bed behind her posterior, wanting her to lie back. She obeyed. Like her wrist, the light came from its optics with a much wider breadth and scanned her torso from the shoulders down to her upper thighs. After several scans, the beam of light diminished as the droid straightened upward. It pivoted around and sauntered towards a monitor nearby. Plugging itself in, Rey watched as the droid transferred the data obtained onto a much larger screen. An image popped up, fuzzy and distorted. The droid adjusted the screen and tilted it towards Rey so that she could see for herself.

Rising from the examination bed, Rey hopped down and came to its flank.

"There." The droid chirped, pressing a iron finger to the screen.

Rey leaned in, confused as what she was supposed to be seeing. "I don't understand." She admitted to the droid. "What am I looking at?"

"Your baby."

* * *

It took Kylo Ren a considerable moment to rein in his wrath towards the holographic Snoke. He was much more powerful than the Knight of Ren, but not within the same confines or even sector of space. His fingers were becoming cold, constricting the blood flow due to his clenched fist. With the rise and fall of his shoulders, Kylo Ren took deep, measured breaths. But the Supreme Leader was right.

 _The Light_ , he realized. _She's been with the Light all along._

In his mind's eye, he saw Darth Vader. The legendary Sith with unparalleled power. He knew the story from start to finish. He knew the Empire was strong because of Darth Vader, alone. But the Light overcame him. His son betrayed him. It was all coming back to Kylo Ren now; his purpose. Somewhere, Luke Skywalker still alive and it was Kylo Ren who would see to it that this was taken from him like it was taken from Vader.

 _Rey._ He felt her essence panic for a moment, almost hysteria. _She must know._

She was coming, he could feel. Certain that Snoke felt it, too.

 _No!_ His mind reeled. _Not yet!_

"With your guidance," Kylo Ren stated with clenched teeth.

* * *

Rey's heart plunged as she took a step away. "What? No, no, no."

The droid turned its fixed visage upon her. The cerulean eyes untouched by her panic. "Yes, Mistress."

"I'm...," Rey's mouth went dry and the words…, she couldn't say them. In her mind, she frantically searched for the essence of Kylo Ren. She had to tell him. He would know what to do. But as she searched and searched, the void was empty. He had locked himself away from her, but not entirely. She felt for the pulse that had lead her to his quarters. As if stirred from sleep, it hummed and resonated with life by the simple thought. She pushed passed the droid as the pulse lured her forward, taking her from the droid, away from the medical bay.

Racing down the corridors, Rey shoved and elbowed passed any figure that stood in her way. Albeit, warranting several studious looks of indignation as she strode passed. The pulse had her turning left and right, following down long narrow passageways that seemed endless, all dominated by red lights until finally...

Rey came to a large door. Without effort, it admitted her, opening out in a shadowy room with high vaulted ceiling. Immediately, Rey saw the seated _thing._ Humanoid, but not quite. It sat beneath a soft light, glitching in existence as if not physically present. And it saw _her._

So fixated by the familiar gaze as it bore into her, Rey did not see that Kylo Ren stood just steps from it. Not entirely human for the visage was an asymmetrical wound. An angry scar rode jaggedly down its forehead and over its nose, stopping short of a thin twisted mouth.

Finally, Rey saw him. A dark hooded figure, small in comparison to the holograph.

"Kylo," she breathed, hurrying into the dark alcove. He turned slightly, eyeing her from behind the mask as she approached. Her hands reached out for him as tears welled her eyes. It was true, Rey was frightened with the news, but she kept sure to have it locked away from prying minds. As she neared, the weighted gaze of the monster seated before them weighed upon her. She lowered her arms, coming short of embracing Kylo Ren, who still had not fully acknowledged her arrival. She glanced between the two as the figure slowly reclined back in calculating observation. Apprehension rose within Rey. A foreboding sense of danger seized her as she stopped short. Kylo Ren was not pleased to see her, it seemed. Her thoughts wandered back to the fervid kiss behind the command shuttle. She knew now there had been desperation in that kiss, as if it were their last.

Licking her lips nervously, Rey spoke. "Kylo, I need to talk to you...in private."

"No," said the disfigurement throned before them. "I've been waiting for this moment."

Kylo Ren seemed to lean away from her as she stilled.

"Go on, Kylo Ren."

Kylo Ren reluctantly turned towards her, concealed on all accounts. She stared into him, imploring to feel him, to sense his mind, or even hers! But her pleas went unheard as she watched him fully face her.

"I can't," Rey's voice was barely audible as she spoke. She couldn't tell him, not now. If only he'd let her in!

"Why not?" Kylo Ren spoke softly, undeterred by her furrowed countenance.

"Please." Again, her words were but soft breaths. She kept darting looks at the misshapen humanoid and back to Kylo Ren.

The startling roar of an ignited lightsaber sent an alarmed Rey staggering back. But before she could even question the reality of her situation,

He swung.

* * *

 

 **Minor update!:** A pregnancy hormone known as hCG is in your blood from the time of conception. Usually it takes 3 to 4 weeks from the first day of your _last period_ for the levels of hCG to be high enough to be found by the tests. The egg stays in the fallopian tube for about 3 to 4 days. But within 24 hours of being fertilized, it starts dividing fast into many cells. It keeps dividing as it moves slowly through the fallopian tube to the uterus.

For the sake of this story and its overt fictitious setting, assume medical technology is accelerated in comparison to say, _our_ modern technology. Sorry for any confusion.

 


	10. Chapter 10

Rey's hands shot up defensively, knowing the blade would cut straight through her flesh and bone. But as she braced for her certain demise, something unexpected transpired. The dim alcove _did_ fill with the slashing and rending of a lightsaber, but of torn metal as it splintered and bled apart. Shattering emissions of electrical charges arced and sputtered within the dim room. Between that and the erratic hum of Kylo Ren's saber slicing through the air, Rey lifted her head to glimpse cautiously, but an explosion of sparks spewing violently threw the air sent her quickly back into cover.

The fiery particles bounced around her as the clamor ensued. She could hear him hacking wildly at the projection console that had just fed the image of Supreme Leader Snoke with undulated rage. With every startling blow of the lightsaber a modulated growl tore through him, filtered through his helmet. Finally, the cacophony come to a halt as the device rendered completely inoperable, fizzing and arcing with instability. All that was left as a chorus was the arduous breaths of a worn Knight, short disengagement of a lightsaber and the sporadic spitting of severed wires. Rey lifted her head to see him staggering back from his work as the hilt of his saber slipped from his fingers and onto the cold floor, then he turned.

Slowly, the veil lifted from her mind, unlocking his thoughts and exposing Rey to his torrents of emotions. At once, everything Kylo Ren had been hiding from now her surged forth. The pain, the anger, the sadness and most importantly, the confliction in it all, came like crashing waves. Unfiltered and raw, the sensations of these emotions were heighten with such clarity, it sent Rey's own heart into a bewildered variation. In reciprocation, Rey surrendered as well, but not entirely. Amidst his overt self-admonishment, she feared it could perhaps add fuel to the fire. He still hadn't known what he'd done, but he did know that it was, at the very least, _for her_. Rey rose onto steady feet, unsure at how soon she could approach the disheveled Knight. He addressed her carefully, regarding her intentions with slow, widening arms. Taking heed of this, Rey came forward and threw herself against him into a firm embrace. They sank together to the floor, slumping among debris and twisted , bleeding metal. They gathered one another until the hold was so great, it was difficult to even breathe. Incognizant of the warmth that stained Rey's cheeks, silent tears began to fall. She was relieved, decidedly, that assuming the worst of Kylo Ren was folly. Against her, he began to unfasten and remove his helmet, keeping one arm wrapped tightly around her as he worked. He wrenched it from his head and tossed it aside. The heavy clank of its impact echoed out just as his lips claimed hers. His other arm cupped her jaw as he delved deeper with his tongue. As always, feeling Kylo Ren against her was stirring. Her heart thrilled as her fingers found their place in his dark tresses. Finally, he pulled away to press his forehead to hers. She felt him tremble, heard it quake his breath as he held her.

"What have I done?" He discerned with a painful grimace, closing his eyes. Defeat laced the timbre of his voice while sagging his shoulders. "I've jeopardized his legacy...," he swallowed thickly, gritting his teeth. " _I am weak."_

She took his face into her hands and kissed him again and again, snuffing out his dejection.

"I can never be like him." He added sullenly, "I don't have the strength to finish."

"No, you're so strong," she whispered between their lips. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him into another tight hug, dragging her kisses across his cheek and whispered harshly. " _Just stop it!_ Stop fighting it! There's so much good in you."

He tensed against her.

"I can't!" He hissed with a clenched jaw, almost wrenching from her. "I'm...,I thought I could resist it, the Light. I thought I could resist _it all_."

In truth, Rey had never intended on taking sides, but here she was, trying to drag Kylo Ren to the Light, even though she knew so little about the Force and its proverbial equilibrium. One second she was escorting a droid to the Resistance and the next, waking up to find she could serve the First Order or perish. What was she to do? The moment the Resistance arrived to dump their droid on her home planet, she was catapulted, with minor reluctance, through a battle among the stars. Then there was Kylo Ren and the metallic tang of fear. When she _resisted_ him and probed into _his_ mind, she realized something at once. He was laden with fear and uncertainty. She had seen the image of his grandfather, the imperious and most powerful Sith the Force had ever achieved fall for the sake of something other than power and darkness. The same something Rey currently struggled with Kylo Ren, who in turn, struggled alongside.

He glanced up with glistening dark eyes. "But _you are_ the Light, Rey. And _that_ , I can't resist." He reached for her hands as he leaned in to kiss her again. He was trying so desperately to hold himself together, bracing bravely against an irrevocable objection to Supreme Leader Snoke, to the First Order, and in his eyes, to Darth Vader. Kylo Ren had learned a great deal on the efforts of growing and progressing forward without petty nuisances like emotions, but here he was, surrendering it all in the arms of Rey, the scavenger from Jakku. It was futile hiding it physically from her for their minds had not once been separate of another. She could see passed it all, feel the simmering wrath and the inhibiting defeat that took reign. What Kylo Ren had done was not something that could be swept under the rug. An army was beneath him. A galactic fleet was behind him. Stormtroopers and Captains and Lieutenants rode his flanks. The weight of it was indeed severe and Rey felt herself scooting closer as her thoughts churned.

 _They could run._ She considered. _They could flee to the Outer Rim and raise their child in solace and safety, separate of any faction like the First Order or even the Resistance._

Rey had not forgotten the child, but she feared now would be the worst time to admit their unexpected _expectancy._ Kylo Ren was drowning in what he believed as weakness or some fashion of acquiescence. But it was not his weakness that had spared her her life and it was not that same weakness that drove him to rend the projection console, thwarting any further influence from Snoke.

 _No, it wasn't weakness._ Her heart panged.

Something startled Kylo Ren for his head snapped up and shot a glare towards the alcove's exit. Whatever it was posed a strong enough affliction upon Kylo Ren to almost resonate out of him and into her. Albeit, the energy was foreign. The anger and rage Rey had been so careful in soothing came flooding back now and she grasped at him as he began to stand, hoping to stave him. He shrugged her off, slinging her arms away and taking firm purchase upon his helmet. A hand came up, and the hilt of the lightsaber flung it across the room, finding residence in his grasp.

"What is it?" She asked from the floor as he threw his hood up. He met her with silence, eliciting an intensified sense of panic on her behalf. He stalked towards the door, leaving her perplexed and unanswered. Springing up quickly, Rey rushed him, snagging a handful of his cloak and attempting to slow him down as she spoke.

"Kylo, stop!" Rey barked with authority. But his gait was determined as she struggled to rein him in.

The rippling thunder of Kylo Ren's anger she felt through the Force suddenly...vanished. In it steads was a calm, and rather startling, clarity as if a light had been switched on... _or off_. Bemused by this, Rey had allowed her fingers to slack and release him as he continued to stalk towards the exit. The foreign energy ebbed slightly and then surged forward again. It was heading for them, but what? With his retreating frame gaining on the exit, Rey pushed into his mind, only to be shoved almost violently out. The influx was startling on impact and strong enough to jostle her vision and blot it with blinding white spots. She faltered in place, blinking as a wave of nausea descended her. Righting her vision and taking a deep breath to null the queasiness, Rey shook her head clear and glared into the shoulders of Kylo Ren. Now irate, she slung her cloak aside, which had been hung up along her arm, and pursued him with conviction.

At the exit, she could hear his voice carry out, barking orders and soon enough, a throng of Stormtroopers rounded the corner, heading straight for her. Knowing only Rey resided in the alcove, it was evident they were there to deter her from following.

"Ma'am?" One of their voices called out. She heard the rattle of their armor as they shuffled towards. She rose to her tiptoes to look over their frames. Rey stared over their bouncing shouders as the dark figure of Kylo Ren disappeared from her sight. Absentmindedly, her hand had drifted over her flat stomach, too soon to feel or to see. Where he was going, she wasn't sure. But something had captured his attention like a moth to flame. This time felt different as opposed to the innumerable accounts he had left her to her own bidding.

 _No, she wasn't done with him yet._ Her mind spat.

Darting forward, Rey meant to push and shove pass the wall of Stormtroopers and continue after Kylo Ren, but it was useless. They tapered in, butting shoulders as she collided into their firm armor. Hands were on her, pulling and tugging at her cloak, trying to push her back. She allowed this, stumbling away and for a reason Rey could not distinguish, she rose an arm, palm outward. From controlling minds to invading thoughts, she wondered what else was possible? The troops before her stilled, though she had no idea what she was about to do. She did it anyway, swiping to the left and gasping with surprise when they listed to their right, knocking against one another and toppling down onto the floor in an armored heap of legs and blasters. Her finger tips tingled as she stared into her opened palm, flexing and turning it over. Before Rey could admire how reckless she was becoming, she hurried passed the sprawled troopers and raced for the exit. Reaching the mouth of the alcove, she sprang out into the corridor, glancing left and then right.

But Kylo Ren was gone.

* * *

Standing amidst the packed snow, Kylo Ren had followed out into the frigid element that was Starkiller base. Now he stood before leveled trees and the battered disc he knew at once was the Millennium Falcon. A pair of TIE-fighter pilots had landed in a small clearing and began investigating the crash site. The freighter was half-buried in the snow, banged up and sporting various tree limgs. When the pilots emerged again, they came to attention befor Kylo Ren and reported:

"Sir, the ship is clear. No anti-personnel traps detected."

His clenched fist tightened, pushing the blood from his knuckles as he strode passed the trooper. Surely, there was _something_ they had missed or perhaps even overlooked. Kylo Ren wasn't sure what it could be, but he hoped its discovery would jump out at him as he raked and scoured over every crevice and angle of the downed freighter's airframe. Taking the investigation further, he entered the fuselage. Proceeding for the cockpit, it came to no surprise that it was indeed empty. His eyes drifted over the consoles and the flight controls before slowly taking a seat in the pilot's position.

 _Something_. He reminded himself, still roaming the innards of the cockpit meticulously.

At once, his thoughts were interrupted by a voiceless, deafening roar that filled the atmosphere like a menacing thunder. Kylo Ren lifted his gaze skyward as a squadrons of X-Wings descended in the proverbial dogfight formation. Rising from the seat, he hurried outside just as the Resistance fighters went onto offensive approach against the bulky hexagonal mass that was the containment field and oscillation control system.

And then the bombs began to drop.

As the exodus of artillery came down, slamming into the frame of the Starkiller base, Kylo Ren thought of one thing.

* * *

Rey was racing down the corridors when suddenly the white lights went out, replacing them with a dominating red hue as sirens around her began to blare. Visually disoriented, she came to a halt as her eyes adjusted to the abrupt shadows. She pressed against the bulkhead as a company of Stormtroopers rounded the corner, shuffling in step passed her. Their destination was unknown but something was awry. The startling shift in the demeanor around her was palpable with tension, strumming her own heart into quick percussions.

The sirens continued to blare as Rey continued onward, seeking that dark proverbial figure when using the Force proved ineffective. Kylo Ren had locked her out back in the alcove and still managed to prevent her from worming her way back in. Even the faint pulse that had not once failed her previously was lost in the hustle and bustle that tumbled like a violent wave. She couldn't shut it off, it seemed. As if a layer had been peeled away since she shoved aside the throng of troopers and now left her too sensitive to everything around her. Perhaps it was the sirens and flashing lights that threw her off. Either way, Rey could not focus long enough to find or even _feel_ Kylo Ren amidst the pandemonium and this was alarming within itself.

Over head, a distressed voice came over the sirens. "All personnel report to your ships! This is not a drill!"

As if on cue, more companies of Stormtroopers and black-clad pilots hurried out into the passageway, shoving Rey aside once again.

 _What's happening?_ She thought, cognizant of her own ascending panic. Certain that her own garb would be recognizable and garner sufficient answers, Rey snagged the arm of a passing trooper. Once he realized she was a Knight of Ren, sort of, he came to an abrupt halt and snapped to attention.

"Yes, ma'am?" He barked.

"What's happening?" Rey implored, "Where are you all going?"

"The Resistance is here. We are under attack." As soon as she released him, the trooper hurried off to rejoin his company.

 _The Resistance?_ Rey thought in shocking clarification. _The Resistance was_ here?

The blaring sirens and strobe lights caught her attention once more. Another mass of white armored Stormtroopers came around the corner at double time as a familiar face echoed into her memory.

 _No_ , she told herself. _Finn had headed for the Outer Rim._

Still, a hopeful spark issued in her chest, willing her to proceed further into the investigation. She knew the Resistance well enough. Perhaps, they knew her too? She quickly began down the corridor once again, only to stop herself short.

 _What about Kylo?_ Her heart panged, interfering with her current mission: To reach the Resistance and get off Starkiller Base. How? She hadn't quite gotten there yet. Maybe she could steal a TIE fighter?

Enveloped in her own musing, Rey had began walking briskly as she thought. Around her, the passage way traffic thinned out as majority Stormtroopers responded to the alarms. Even from within, she could hear the heavy hangar bay doors rumbling the structure as they lifted, preparing to launch their own aerial attack. She came to an intersection under a furrowed countenance as she thought. Kylo Ren had been ordered to destroy her by the Supreme Leader Snoke, but yet, he didn't. In fact, Rey was certain he'd been staving off the impending conclusion from the moment she'd arrived. He knew just as well as she did that by no means would she drift to the Dark side. She knew so little about...well, _everything._ She thought of Jakku and her chest tightened with yearn. If she could go back, erase everything and start from that moment she'd rescued BB-8 from Teedo, she would. But that would mean never knowing Kylo. This thought alone caused her to wince. She didn't like the sound of that. Kylo was.. Rey shook her head as she considered how to describe such a man. Powerful, absolutely. Determined, yes. He was all these things, but when it came to how he behaved around Rey, it was suddenly different. _He_ was suddenly different. From her left came a trio of figures she paid little attention to. Still submersed in thought, Rey drifted to the side of the intersection to remain out of the way but so did the figures. She glanced up just as a familiar chuffing groan escaped the lungs of a very hirsute Wookie, flanked by the infamous smuggler and rogue ex-Stormtrooper.

"Finn!" Rey's eyes widen in tandem with her smile as she raced forward. Finn had already entered a hurried pace, meeting her just short of the intersection in a tight embrace.

"You're alive" Finn breathed, throwing his arms around her. Neither scavenger or ex-trooper thought of letting go as they held onto each other, squeezing the air from their lungs. When they finally separated to stare unwavering into each other's eyes, Finn spoke again as an armed Han and Chewbacca closed in.

"Are you alright?" He took her by the shoulders, giving her thorough once over. "What's this?" He grasped at the palls of obsidian cloth she was clad in, tossing the fabric over in his hands and eyeing her with subtle disbelief. "Are you a Knight now?"

A shameful blush heated her cheeks as she took away the purchase of her garb from Finn. "I had no choice, Finn." Her voice was small, but still defiant. "They threatened to kill me if I didn't agree."

"Who's they?" Han then interjected, sudden taking interest in the matter. The way his eyes darkened told her he already knew the answer. Rey gazed into his countenance, comparing the weathered of age at the corner of his eyes and mouth to the young and vivid one in Kylo's dream.

"Kylo Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke." She answered finally.

"I figured, " Han spoke sardonically as he shook his head, then added with a nod. "Well, we're here to bust you out."

Rey felt her heart twist again as she reached out and took Finn's hand into hers. She squeezed him while she figured out the words to express her utmost gratitude, but slight aphasia had taken reign. How they had managed to make it this far undetected was beyond Rey. But they had and now she could finally escape the clutches of the First Order...

Of course, not without Kylo Ren.

"Come on," Han gestured casually at Rey and Finn's still encompassed hands. "We'll have a party later. Right now, let's get out of here." He brandished his blaster, signaling Chewie to follow behind. Finn released her and stepped around as the trio readied to leave.

"Wait," she heard herself say, surprised by her absolute resolve. Rey closed her eyes as her heart kick started into a panic-laden frenzy in preparation for her next statement. Their footfalls came to an abrupt halt and she could feel their stares penetrating into her shoulders. She tilted her head to the side, speaking carefully as she did. "I can't leave him."

With her back turned, a single pair of footsteps proceed forward. On her right, Han Solo appeared. She met his gaze as tears threatened the corner of her eyes. It was now Han's turn to take her hand gently, lowering his gaze as he spoke just loud enough for her to hear.

"I know." He whispered, swallowing thickly. "I know." He glanced up.

Whether it was the determination that darkened his own eyes or a ripple in the Force, Rey knew.

Kylo was Ben.


	11. Chapter 11

Rey was led by the three figures to an exterior access door. As soon as the surface lifted, they were abruptly greeted by the roaring sound of aerial dogfights and the planet's frigid winds. Explosions riddled the sky as seeker turrets blasted at any signature it captured, friend or foe. Unfortunately, mostly X-Wings were taking damage, sending smoldering debris like comets whirring down omin the icy grounds.

Han looked back to Rey, who appeared comfortably shrouded in a thick Knight's uniform, and said. "My friend has a bag of explosive we didn't use inside. Where would be the best place to put them so we don't haul them back to the Falcon?"

Rey shook her head in answer though, knowing fully he intended to stow the arsenal along the planet to later activate. Even amidst the calamity that surrounded the motley gang, her thoughts could only focus on Kylo Ren. She still couldn't reach his thoughts.

Finn then shouted above the volley of gunfire and explosions. "The oscillator, but there's no way to get inside!"

Her eyes once again drifted skyward. The Resistance fighters were mainly focusing on the hexagonal structure not far from their current position. Her heart thrummed and leaped with apprehension. She still couldn't feel him, no matter how hard she pushed. But despite this transgression and the ascending fear in its wake, Rey knew this place better than her three companions, and not by exposure. Her attempts at scavenging the starship carcasses suddenly proved viable.

"There is a way." Rey told Han, squinting against the hard wind. "I've seen inside these walls. The mechanics are all the same. I can get us in. Just…," she eyed their blasters and Chewbacca's bowcaster. "Try not to garner too much attention.

* * *

With Rey leading the way and Finn assisting in quiet navigation, the four reached the innards of the hexagonal building with no compromises. Fortunately, they hadn't crossed paths with many personnel, only droids. Rey assumed a vast majority of the companies had been summoned to fight for the base.

Now inside the complex, the group encroached upon a closed service hatch. Rey fell back to scan the intersecting corridors for possible personnel, someone to at least flag down. At the last second, her eye caught movement of a female officer hurrying down the corridor, opposite of their position.

"Wait here." Rey whispered to Han as she raced quietly towards the unsuspecting officer.

"Ma'am?" She called out once she was close enough, startling the woman slightly. Rey squared her shoulders and slowed to an authoritize pace.

"Yes?" The officer replied, taking heed to Rey's obsidian outfit. Her eyes were wide as Rey approached.

"I need access to a service hatch back that way," Rey gestured behind her shoulder. "Do you mind using your badge?" She figured asking never hurt and it came to no surprise when the officer declined.

"We have strict orders to keep those doors loc-"

"You will give me your access badge and retire to your private quarters." Rey said steadily. Her eyes not once wavering from the glossiness that took over the officer's stare.

The officer blinked with vacant eyes and slowly nodded. Mutely, she reached into the innards of her dress uniform to retrieve an access key before softly whispering, " I will give you my access badge and retire to my private quarters."

Rey yanked the access key from the officer's grasp and was back at the flanks of Han and the others in seconds.

"I got it!" She grinned as she wheeled around the corner, key in hand. She was relieved the mind tricked worked as well as it did. Rey wasn't looking forward to burrowing into access panels and yanking free components and cannon plugs.

Han scoffed with incredibility. "How so?"

She brushed passed them and ran the face of the badge against a solid red light. It flashed green and the hatch slid open to reveal another empty corridor.

"Huh." Han grunted. "Nice job, kid."

As Chewbacca and Finn strode passed, Han hung back, allowing the Wookie and ex-Stormtrooper a few seconds to get ahead.

Rey was glad as she stilled next to him. She had some important news.

"Han-," she began, but he cut her off.

"What happened?" His eyes bore into her, imploring her to indulge him with every fathomable secret she harbored. In her chest, her heart hammered with the fear of admission.

 _I'm pregnant._ She wanted to say, but it wasn't that easy. Saying it aloud meant acknowledging it as truth and the truth was, Rey was terrified.

"Hey," he whispered gently, grasping her by the shoulders as he watched the struggle tighten her countenance. "It's going to be okay."

She gritted her teeth as she dipped her head to stare into the floor. Her vision blurred while a warmth spread across her cheeks. It was getting difficult to breathe now. The desire to rip open her wounds and bare the injuries of her actions swelled almost painfully in her chest. As much as she refused to see this separation from Kylo Ren as abandonment, it was hard not to. First Finn, then Han, then Kylo. She took a deep breath, dragging the air through her lungs and exhaling carefully. When she glanced back up at Han, she felt like he knew already, for her trembling hands had drifted over her stomach where he now observed..

He looked up under a concerned brow. "Do you love him?"

She struggled to nod, not because it wasn't so; she did love him. But because she had never admitted this to anyone sans herself.

"So do I." He told her, stepping in to drape an arm over her shoulder. He pulled her against him and pressed his lips to her crown. For a brief moment, they embraced until an agitated chuffing emission sounded as Chewbacca back tracked. From his massive black paw hung a bag of explosives.

Han patted her back as she quickly wiped away threatening tears before turning towards the Wookie.

"Right," Han began, "Let's plant them at every support beam we can find. He motioned upward, "You take the top, Chewie. I'll get them bottom. We'll meet back here."

Han took an armful of the small ordnance and headed around the perimeter of the oscillator while Chewie carefully ascended a nearby ladder, leaving Rey and Finn empty handed and apparently useless. Rey's eyes followed as Chewacca made his climb before she gestured towards Finn.

"Maybe we should get up high and keep a look out?" She suggested, garnering a nod from Finn.

"Yeah, good idea."

Rey led the way, heading towards the far side of the massive oscillator, opposite of Chewie. She found a set of access stairs that zigzagged its way upward. Quickly, they hiked up until overlooking several levels about Chewbacca and Han's location.

"Should we split up? So both sides are covered?" A panting Finn inquired. Rey nodded splitting off towards the right while he remained. Moving quickly around, Rey was oblivious to the dark figure that had made its way down the center of the oscillator, provided by a narrow, rail-less catwalk. And it was until she was positioned directly above Chewbacca did she feel _him._ She slowed to a still as the confusion took over. He was distant, a faint signal but his location was still a mystery. Frantically, Rey began to glance around while her heart kick started into a frenzy. Movement below caught her attention, but it wasn't Kylo Ren she spotted, but a gang of Storm Troopers flooding into the massive complex, climbing and descending. In seconds, the flurry of white armor infiltrated the levels, narrowly missing the very levels Chewie and Rey patrolled.

Her hands had come forth, wrapping tightly around the railing until her knuckles bore white. Within her, the signal grew stronger as more troops flooded in. She leaned forward, eyeing below with undeterred scrutiny. He was down there, somewhere among the throng, she could feel it. She pushed with her thoughts, but a voice rang out with a single word, shattering her concentration and diverting her eyes from the Stormtroopers to the thin pathway below. Her eyes locked onto the familiar tousled mop of grey hair and leather jacket swathed in the menacing red lights. Han Solo appeared hesitant at the mouth of the walkway. He was staring ahead.

It was his voice that had cried out of over the hum of the complex structure and Rey knew just what he'd said.

_Ben..._


	12. Chapter 12

"Take off that mask," Han began as he took calculated steps towards his son. "You don't need it." Rey, who had been nothing short of haphazard with her new found abilities, once again found a strange stirring within her. Down below, Han approached his son carefully. The paternal instinct to rescue Ben was apparent, but it was Kylo Ren who stood rooted along the catwalk. At her side was Finn and by the way he angled his shoulders suggested that the second something awry emerged, he would have her out of the area in seconds.

A heavy silence came between the father and son as Kylo Ren regarded Han under a stiff gaze.

"What do you think you'll see if I do?" A distorted response came from the motionless Knight.

"The face of my son." Han replied with palpable authority as he made another small confident advancement. The wariness was evident, coming and going between moments of paternal confidence and distrust. The last time Han had seen his son was many moons ago. His memory still depicted Ben a youthful boy, dominated his father's features with a head full of dark tresses. Just now, imagining what time had done, maybe even battles, worried Han. Despite this and any scar Ben had endured, Han was here to take him home, away from the First Order and the Snoke's oppressing control.

The figure shrouded in drapes of obsidian reached upward and released the airlock, freeing thick black hair and flushed countenance.

"Your son is gone." Kylo Ren seethed. "He was weak and foolish, like his father."

Han's heart was not prepared to see the grown man beneath the scarred metal. It jarred him and twisted his insides. He tried not to reveal the agony across his expression but it was difficult to understand the cruelty that was time.

His son was now a man and this clarity seemed to tear the air right from his very lungs. "That's what Snoke wants you to believe." Han explained, taking several daring steps closer. "But that's not true. My son is alive."

"No," Kylo Ren said evenly. "The Supreme Leader is wise."

Han had continued to come forward, both now suspended above the yawning abyss that was the oscillator.

"Snoke is using you for your power. When he gets what he wants, he'll crush you." He said under a gentler tone.

Now within arms reach of each other, Kylo Ren stiffened, almost leaning away from the presence of his father. His previous undeterred disposition was waning the longer Han stood before him.

Above, Chewbacca, Rey and Finn watched on bated breath. Rey still held onto the railing like a vise as she observed the two men.

Something had to be done.

"We should do something," Rey whispered to herself.

"What?" Finn whispered back.

"I have to tell him." She said, louder this time. "I have to tell him now!" She let go of the railing and hurried to the nearest stairwell while her heart revved into gear. A sense of urgency came over her, stirring an almost panicked frenzy to get down there and tell Kylo Ren everything. The words exchanged between the men were lost to the pounding steps of her footfalls as she flew down the metal stairs, coming to an abrupt halt when a throng of startled and heavily armed Stormtroopers trained their blasters onto her.

She almost stumbled as she reared back in surprise. The wall of white armor separated her from the walkway and now the roaring in her head ascended to a nauseating level.

"Please," she panted. "I'm a Knight of Ren! He needs me!"

The troops were wordless as they maintained their firing line. A loud clunk then echoed across the vast structure, grating against Rey's overwhelming sensitivity. The Force was urging her, pleading for her to rush to Kylo's side, flooding her veins with such intensity it welled her eyes with tears.

"Please," her voice trembled. "He needs us."

"Ma'am, step back." One of the troopers stated evenly, offering a subtle nod with the barrel of his blaster just as an advancing shadow spilled in from the outside. The oscillator had finished its charge, depleting the nearby star entirely and now encompassed the Starkiller base in artificial darkness. Within the interior of the oscillator, the red lights intensified their crimson glow and swathed the white armor before her.

Then it came. The proverbial roar of an untamed saber splintering through the air and shadow, crackling as it tore through something beyond Rey's line of sight. Something she didn't have to see passed the wall of Stormtroopers.

Something… her mind was reaching out, feeling, probing through the darkness, seeking the tiny spark of flickering light that was Kylo Ren, but she found something else, something searing and ripping apart, tearing her heart in half, rending her flesh and bone separate.

A blast of wind came outward and pulsed the air around Rey, knocking back the throng of troopers that divided her path. Some careened over the sides, legs and blasters flinging through the air, while the lucky few pratfell back, opening the path towards the walkway.

And then Rey knew what she had felt as the erratic lightsaber, protruding from Han's back, was pulled free. For a moment, she couldn't breathe, especially not around the scream that tore threw her lungs. She watched as Han's frame listed to the left, an arm was raised, gently caressing a face he would always love before succumbing into the depths of the oscillator. A face they both loved and suddenly became unfamiliar with.

Rey was blinded by the tears as a scorching energy ignited within her. Like a thrashing arm of power, she had reached out into the darkness for something, for anything. And when she found it, she yanked with all her might. From across the abyss, it came. Kylo Ren's lightsaber flung through the air, disengaging itself as the red lights within the hexagonal structure refracted along its silver body.

Unaware of what she had just done, Rey ducked at the last second. It whizzed over her head and crashed into the wall behind her. Her eyes shot upward in time to see an equally puzzled and visibly stunned Knight. But before Rey and Kylo Ren could react at this new-found predicament, a howl filled the interior of the oscillator and a blast came from the levels above, slamming into Kylo Ren's side. Embers blazed red as small tendrils of his attire singed before dying out. The impact alone had sent many predecessors flying through the air, but Kylo Ren carefully took a knee. Around them ignited a volley of return blaster fire from all directions as the flanking troopers sprang into offensive action.

"REY, RUN!" A voice shouted above the clamor of blasters just as all explosives were detonated. The surrounding columns shuddered and crumbled under the catastrophic blast. Support beams trembled and cables snapped and resonated with sparks spewing about. Stormtroopers began to scramble for safety as the deck took an unnatural pitch beneath everyone's feet.

Rey quickly got to her feet, training her eyes onto Kylo Ren, who still knelt along the catwalk.

"Run!" The voice, she recognized as Finn, came a second time just as the Knight slowly gathered to his feet.

So Rey ran, fleeing from the oscillator and into the dark, frigid elements and not long was Finn at her side, hurrying her along into the frozen thicket of the Starkiller base.

"The Falcon's this way," he shouted as he handed her a blaster. They hurried forth while the chorus of explosions and ruptures ascended from behind them, barely fading until a new sound emerged.

Hidden among the trees, the crackling hum that was Kylo Ren's lightsaber engaged. Their frantic eyes finally trained on the menacing glow, stark against the fallen snow. Rey and Finn tightened their hold on their blasters before maneuvering around the icy grove.

There, a few yards before them, was the Knight of Ren standing unsteadily under the gentle snowfall. He was slightly slouched, an arm favoring his side where a gaping and profusely bleeding wound existed. At his feet were droplets of collecting blood.

"We're not done yet." Kylo Ren said, breathlessly. His face was ashen and along his crown, clung tendrils of wet hair, either from sweat or the melting snow. Rey wasn't sure. She could feel him now. Like second nature, she reached out to connect with him, only to be jolted by the raw emotions that surrounded him; a medley of despair and anguish, rage and defeat. There was no getting through to him. He was a stranger to her now. What kind of monster would kill his own father? And for what?

Exposed to such corrosion, Rey felt her own anger beginning to arise. Her lungs pulled in the cold air as her thoughts cleared and her confidence came. "You're a monster." She told him.

"Am I?" Kylo Ren breathed. "Then what does that make you?"

Rey didn't know what to say, but she understood clear what he was referring to. Her brow furrowed under the slow descent of snow.

"Tell me, Rey." Kylo Ren seethed, "If I'm the monster, what does that make you?"

"Rey, what's he talking about?" Finn whispered with perplexity.

She flexed her jaw, still weighed by Kylo Ren's heavy gaze. "I don't know," she lied.

The Knight's expression tightened by her words, "Then allow me to remind you."

Without any physical indication of his actions, Kylo Ren forcibly entered her mind and not gently. With his deft sifting and burrowing came a variety of sensations. Pain and then pleasure. Searing agony and blissful release. He reminded her of things not a lifetime of living could make her forget. She saw the images and tasted the intimacy as if she were back in his bedroom with him buried deep within her. She felt the scouring of his hands sliding up her body, grasping her firmly, rolling her hips. She saw him lapping up the sweat between the valley of her breast. Then her thoughts derailed suddenly, spiraling out of control with flashes of the ship's passageway, the curious droid with cerulean eyes. It crisps parlance and metal arm pointing to the screen. An image with a heartbeat.

And then it went dark and the cold slammed into her frame once again. Her knees had buckled and she was back on the trembling Starkiller base.

 _He knows,_ she realized.

But her resolve and her despair-stricken heart told her he was not the same man. In reality, she hadn't just lost Han, but Kylo Ren as well. Quickly, Rey reached for her blaster and readily aimed. But before she could squeeze off a round, Kylo Ren lifted an arm and seized her still. With this, she found her resolve grow in confidence and she struggled against him, battling in their minds through the Force. It appeared he struggled too. Not only was Rey growing stronger the more she fumbled with her new abilities, but more so, the news that he seemingly stumbled upon added to his incertitude. His expression was visible shock and confusion. It only took a brief moment of consideration on his part, an idle breath of distraction for Finn to react. He suddenly lunged forward, swinging an ignited lightsaber for a fatal strike against the disheveled Knight.

In the little training he had provided Rey, she knew what was to come next. Kylo Ren was to eliminate has many threats as he could in the small amount of time he had before Finn made contact. So then came the push, which sent Rey flying through the air by several meters before colliding into a nearby tree.

There was pain and then came the blackness.


	13. Chapter 13

Kylo Ren didn't mean to shove her as firmly as he did. It was only an attempt to knock her off balance, perhaps disarm her even. But with FN-2187 coming forth with an activated lightsaber, hours of training and combat had come through as a mere reflex, sending Rey careening through the icy grove. Now Finn was upon him, slashing and swinging his lightsaber against the knight.

No, Kylo Ren growled, not _his_.

"That lightsaber," Kylo Ren shouted over the hum of the charged weapons as he deftly blocked each blow, "Belongs to me!"

If FN-2187 heard him, there wasn't any indication, only a feral cry as he began to wildly slice through the air, causing Kylo Ren to step back.

Where is Rey? He thought, attempting to locate her among the snow while simultaneously evading FN-2187's erratic blows. Because of this split second of distraction, Kylo Ren took a boot straight into the chest. The strike was hard enough to knock him back, but not enough to summon any pain or lose substantial footing. Quickly, he righted himself and readied his crackling weapon at his forefront.

Around them, the snow fell in a dense curtain of greys, shrouding the cold grove. In the distance were the low rumbles of a collapsing oscillator. Once again, his thoughts reverted back to Rey. He prayed she was alright, now more than ever. If he couldn't find her with his eyes, he'd search with his mind. As FN-2187 lunged forward, Kylo Ren rolled to the right, allowing the ex-Stormtrooper to stumble passed. His thoughts reached out and his mind quickly found her, a steady heartbeat not but several meters away, but there was another softer, smaller percussion in tandem of hers. It was real. Rey _was_ ,in fact, with child. His child. Now Kylo Ren's steadfast ways no longer seemed of value or of much importance. Everything simply vanished. It was only her now. His future.

_His._

She belonged to him, now more than ever. She had always belonged to him. From the moment he found her on Takodana, struggling to lose him among the rocks and ravines, doused in sweat and fear. _She was his_. His heart swelled painfully with a series of emotions ranging from suffocating love and paralyzing fear. Kylo Ren was suddenly,...suddenly he wasn't so sure of himself or his legacy. This alone twisted his stomach with a wave of anxiety. What was he but his grandfather's unfinished legacy? From his position of power in the First Order to his guidance from Supreme Leader Snoke, everything was for Darth Vader. FN-2187 had just wheeled around for another swing, yanking Kylo Ren from his reverie.

The knight's arm shot upward with his fingers curled in anger. The blast came, knocking FN-2187 from his feet. Kylo Ren pivoted around, turning his back towards the Stormtrooper for another moment to scour the trees and snow. Behind him, he could hear FN-2187 struggling. Sparing a glance over his shoulder, Kylo Ren turned to face him as he quickly drew near. He was growing frustrated that he couldn't locate Rey and even more so that, perhaps, she was hurt. It was this frustration that rapidly became anger as he swung his saber round, resonating its sporadic hum through the quiet snow as FN-2187 finally got to his feet.

"I'm going to kill you." His voice seethed over the humming weapons. It had to be done. Whatever struggled resided in Rey was due to this individual before him. A connection of the sort, he wondered. From his own experience, he knew Rey drew people in, from all variants.

The constant throbbing that came from his side had lost his attention until now. As an audacious reminder, and since the odds were not in FN-2187's favor, Kylo Ren balled a tight fist and slammed it several times against his wound. The pain sprang into action, rippling through his torso like white fire and then spreading out. This centered his fury on the traitor before him, locking eyes as the man finally got to his feet. Kylo Ren drew himself up into his full height as FN-2187 raced forward. He waited until the very last second to pivot carefully towards the left as the man came downward with his blade. He swung, colliding against the blue lightsaber with surprise. He was sure it was would have made contact with his opponents flesh, but the blow was successfully parried. This didn't deter the knight as he slowly faced his the ex-trooper with slow, calculated steps. At this point, he was just drawing out the inevitable, biding his time until FN-2187 grew tired and unable to keep up.

Directly behind FN-2187 was a thick tree only a few meters away. Kylo Ren lunged forward, swinging his weapon diagonally as the blue lightsaber ascended for a block. The blades collided, crackling and roaring against one another's energy. Kylo Ren dug his heels into the snow, pressing forward until FN-2187 could no longer stand against him. His weight gave way as he staggered back, retreating from Kylo Ren until ultimately slamming to the tree directly behind him. He needed to quickly finish FN-2187 so he could get back to Rey...and...and, the baby.

Suddenly, his opponent slipped, sinking down against the tree and providing Kylo Ren a higher leverage. He shoved his blade forward, diminishing the space between FN-2187's flesh and his own blade. The man turned his head, gritting his teeth in concentration as he fought against Kylo Ren's strength and to keep the blade from searing into his skin. Kylo Ren was a more seasoned warrior than the Stormtrooper so it wasn't long until contact made and the proverbial smell and sound of burning flesh filled the air. His opponent began to wail.

Kylo Ren pushed harder, digging the side of the blade deeper into the man's neck, amplifying his agonized screams. The knight yanked back and swung, driving the blade against the tree. FN-2187 moved at once and immediately swung, glancing the tip of the blade against Kylo Ren's shoulder.

A new pain riveted the knight and intensified his bloodlust. As ripple in the Force came, Kylo Ren spun around in time to bind their blades as FN-2817 jumped back into action. Kylo Ren drove his saber downward, leaning in abruptly. He reversed his wrist, twirled, and then yanked forcibly. The blue lightsaber was freed and sent hurtling through the air before disengaging. It disappeared somewhere beneath the collecting snow.

Kylo Ren slammed a fist into FN-2187's jaw, spinning him slightly to the side and providing an open to his back. He swung his lightsaber around, raking the tip of the blade along the traitor's spine.

* * *

Dazed and disoriented, the unmistakable sound of screams jarred Rey awake. Her head and backed throbbed as she tried to sit up, but the world began to spin. She sank back into the cold earth and strained her eyes to focus. There was snowfall and it was so cold amoung an eerie and unnatural darkness. Her thoughts scrambled to make sense of it all as she stared into the blackened sky, to backtrack and recollect what had happened to her.

She was on Starkiller base with Kylo Ren, she remembered. The others were here. Finn, Chewbacca...

_Han..._

_Han..._ Her heart panged as it all came back.

 _Han_ , who had spared her life when boarding the Falcon. _Han_ , who had taken her to Takodana to save the droid from the First Order, who had offered to take her under his wing aboard the Millennium Falcon, was gone, to be killed by his only son. A darkness he had crossed the galaxy to bring back to the light only for his own to be extinguished in the end.

Lying there, stunned and motionless, Rey reflected the moment she had taken solace in Han's company. In her thoughts, she was back within the passageways of Starkiller base, embracing him as she felt him kiss her crown. There in the corridor, surrounded by shared enemies, she had felt his heartbeat in between hers. He _knew_ without her telling him. He was going to be a grandfather amidst their silent conclusion. Her heart twisted painfully as her sight burned with welling tears. He _was_ the father she never had, but now the void had returned as a fresh wound. And now the sound of Finn's pain only filled the space in her head. Like a shock, Rey sat upright despite her muddled head and shakily got to her feet. The roars of lightsabers lead the way as blue and red beams of light clashed and bound together not but a few meters away. They crackled and sputtered against each other, spewing sparks against the thick shadows as Rey stumbled forth. She came between a set of trees just as Kylo Ren drove a hard fist in Finn's cheek, spinning her friend around and exposing his back. She stopped short the moment Kylo Ren grated the tip of his weapon along Finn's spine. His knees buckled and he slumped down into the snow like dead weight.

_Han.._

_And now Finn..._

Rey charged.

With Kylo Ren's back facing towards her, she slammed into his dark frame, toppling him over and into the snow where the struggle continued. He had twisted himself around to face her head on as they grappled. His hands were up, fending off her fists as she swung madly with the very tactics he had taught her. He captured her wrists tightly and yanked her down into him. She screamed and growled, thrashing for release so she could swing at him again and again for what he had did to Han and now, Finn. But instead, he held her, wrapping his arms around her as he began to sit upright. Eventually, Rey exhausted herself. In the end, he was stronger and more congruent with the Force than she. As her advances became more lethargic than lethal, the cold soon began to fade, replaced by the warmth of Kylo Ren around her. Rey's breaths came in clouded drafts as the two black-cladded figures no longer struggled among the snow and roots.

Kylo Ren rose a hand as he reached for her chin. He took her gently and forced her to look him in the eye. She obliged with a tear-stricken face, but he then he leaned in and she stiffened. As their lips met, she braced for the inevitable disgust, for the hate to rise and burn like fire within her. And it came, and to feel his lips against her was a conflict of emotions. Her heart thrummed but her fist reared. She wrenched from his embrace and punched him squarely along the jaw. Rey fell back into the snow, digging her heels into the earth to separate herself from this monster she admittedly loved and loathed. Stunned, Kylo Ren remained, reaching a hand down to take a firm purchase of his weapon's hilt.

" _I hate you_." She snarled as the ground beneath her began to tremble. The earth suddenly pitched upward before plummeting into a rapidly developing sink hole. Both knights were jostled and startled as they began to slide downward while twisting themselves around and clambering to flee the deepened maw. Rey had reached the edge, lifting herself from hole when Kylo Ren called out.

"Rey!"

She felt him tremble through the Force like a terrible thunder as she turned to him. There, in the shadow and snow above a rumbling, perhaps even collapsing, planet, she felt the man she loved again. He was still there, shrouded in anguish and incertitude like she. Rey didn't mean to probe but she couldn't help herself. She entered his mind, like she had done so many times before and _felt it._ All the pain and confusion so similar to hers, she wasn't sure it wasn't exposure to her own thoughts. Around them, the trees began to lurch upward under the unstable planet as a flash of lights flooded the thicket. The landing lights of an arriving shuttle had washed over them. Beneath them was a chilling crack that resonated across the forest like an explosion. The ground lurched upward a second time, jarring the Knights to step even further away from each other. Rey stumbled whilst the earth yawned open a gnarled and gaping maw beneath her feet. The crack went outward, disappearing as it toppled and snapped trees in half through its mighty wake.

 _This was the end_ , she realized as the crack grew wider. Something tapped her ankle as she stared across the abyss, diverting her attention for a moment. When she looked down, expecting bracken or perhaps a severed root, she saw a lightsaber. _Luke's lightsaber._ She plucked it up from the shifting earth as another set of lights came and Rey turned her head into the blinding white. She recognized it at once as the _Falcon._ Returning her attention back to Kylo Ren, Rey felt a jolt of panic. _This is it,_ she reminded herself. Her hair flew wildly around her face as the wind kicked up. She could see the frame of Kylo Ren and his uniform thrashing against the current. _This is it. You'll never see him again. You're free._

Someone negated loudly, loud enough to scorch her lungs and burn her eyes. It was Rey, she didn't want this. Life or death, it suddenly didn't matter. There was another way. There was _always_ another way. Engaging the lightsaber, Rey spun around frantically for a still-standing tree. Finding one, she began to hack and slash at the bark furiously. The blade crackled and singed at its opponent, slinging chucks and chips of charred wood. Beneath her feet, the earth grew even unsteadier than before, threatening to topple her down before she could get the tree down fast enough. The saber became lodged and she pushed, leaning all of her weight against it as it burned and began to smoke. Then a great snap came and the tree listed forward before finally succumbing and falling. It stretched across the gorge but barely, having caught itself among the thin branches near the top. She hovered over the severed portion and yelled,

"Come with me!" Her voice was strong as she spoke and she held onto it, hoping it could sway his decision. She gestured around her. "There's nothing left for you!"

Despite that the world around them was caving in, Kylo Ren waited, considering. There was hope, but there wasn't time.

"I can't." He eyed her, sternly.

"Please!" She cried out again. This wasn't the life he intended to live. A world of uncertainty and darkness with piling death tolls and eradicated worlds. It wasn't a life _she_ could live. He had spared it once before, he could spare it again.

"Ben," she whispered into the whipping wind. "Come with me."

Within her clenched fist, the lightsaber hummed and flickered its blue beam. The more certain she became of her words, the more confident the blade seemed to sing.

"Please!" She cried, startled by her own desperate inflection. Her free hand drifted to her stomach, "Kylo...I'm-."

"I know," his voice cracked and weakened causing him to look away with shame. Behind him, the shuttle ramp opened and a throng of troopers bustled out quickly. He spared a glance towards them before glaring down at the makeshift bridge.

"I can't do this alone, Kylo." She beseeched, "I thought I could, but I can't!"

The Stormtroopers were closer now. They were here to take him back, back to Supreme Leader Snoke and the corrupted First Order.

Rey gritted her teeth, growing angry, "Give us a second chance." She wasn't sure if she meant her and Kylo, or if she was referring her and their unborn child. Regardless, she continued. "Snoke is going to kill you, Kylo, for sparing my life." She took a deep breath, "If you stay, I stay and we all die."

The troopers were upon him now, surrounding his flank and aiming their blasters across the gorge. They were shouting, grasping at Kylo Ren's sleeves and tunic, trying to usher him back to the command shuttle before the planet claimed their lives.

He glanced down at his quiet hilt and then to Rey.

He took a step forward as the red glare filled the forest with its crackling roar.


	14. Chapter 14

Rey had expected him to turn towards the Stormtroopers and begin hacking and rending with his proverbial anger, however, he did not. Instead, he turned and quietly regarded them while his weapon crackled and singed against the falling snow around them. It was a warning, she knew, that despite their numbers, Kylo Ren could still kill them with the blade or the Force. Rey shifted impatiently along her feet, almost leaning over the deadly gorge.

"Go back to the ship," his voice carried over the wild, roaring wind.

The men exchanged several glances of confusion, unsure of whose orders to follow, before lowering their weapons and heeding to his words. They turned, almost bumping into another, and hurried back towards the safety of command shuttle. A lone figure awaited them along the its illuminated ramp. More than likely Hux, Rey assumed.

The ground rumbled and groaned as Kylo Ren turned to face Rey once again. His eyes ranged over the toppled tree, growing unsteady by the seconds. His holstered the weapon and readied to make the cross.

Another tremble shuddered the earth, jostling the trees around them, and loosening the sheets of collected snow from their spindly limbs.

"Hurry!" Rey shrieked, drawing near so that she could reach across to him. He lifted a foot through the thin branches and took a carefully step. It held him so he braved another, and then another until he was tittering over a black, endless oblivion. Rey strained outward with one hand holding on to the severed stump as an anchor while the other stretched forth. He was reaching as well and their fingers brush. Another tremor surged through the earth, tossing the tree upward from its resting place as the gorge yawned open further.

But she had his hand now, and she yanked with a cry, falling onto her rump as he fell against her. Together they clambered away as the split widened until it the tree's ends could no longer sustain purchase. It bounced and heaved under its weight and the earth's thrashing before succumbing to the yawning pitch below.

"Keep moving!" She shouted as they got to their feet. Rey took hold Kylo Ren's hand and turned in effort to make a run for the Falcon, only to slam into hard wall of fur. As she stumbled back into Kylo Ren, bewildered, Chewbacca chuffed and growled, reaching her with one arm and wrenching her behind him. In his other, draped over his shoulder, was the body of Finn. He roared and brandished his bowcaster, aiming it straight for Kylo's chest.

"Wait!" Rey screamed. She threw her arms up and placed her body between Kylo and Chewbacca. "I don't have time to explain!" She began,"Just get us back to the Falcon!Please!" She reached up and grabbed the barrel of the bowcaster, yanking it down and pointing it towards her own chest. "Please! I'll explain onboard! Now go!" The furious Wookie listened, wrenching his weapon from her grasp. They raced back towards the waiting ship and hurried aboard as the planet finally succumbed to its destruction.

As the landing gear retracted into the wells, Rey had rushed to the cockpit. She hastened to don her seat harness next to Chewbacca as the taxi lights washed over the plane of snow. The ground sank, leaving the snow almost suspended in air before it finally gave way to the depths of the dying planet.

As they made their ascent, the remaining X-wings in the airspace took position at the Falcon's flanks. Once in orbit, Rey finally allowed herself to breathe. She closed her eyes and sat back against the seat. It seemed everything was on override. Minutes felt like hours and now she finally had time to catch her breath. Nothing was after her now. Not companies of troopers, or seething Generals, but the strife was far from over. She had obtained a prominent and rather powerful subject amidst this war; she had Kylo Ren, Master of the Knights of Ren, First in Command of the First Order. From a diplomatic stance, it certainly looked viable. But how would Leia Organa respond to her son's sudden arrival, to the news of Han's death? Moreover, how would the _Resistance_ respond? Rey furrowed a brow as she contemplated.

"This is a mess," she whispered to herself. On her left, Chewie chuffed derisively. Sparing a glance towards him, she considered explaining the situation. Back on Starkiller base, she knew he had grabbed her as an act of protection, to get her away from Kylo Ren. But her own actions more than likely warranted a variety of questions. Albeit, it wasn't like Chewbacca to prod, like Han, he accepted the way things were and moved on.

_Like Han…_

Tearing her eyes away, Rey dropped her gaze onto her lap where her hands fidgeted. She had never felt so conflicted in her life. It was simple living as a scavenger, either trade or pilfer. Scavenge and fight for what's yours. And above all else, survive. Decidedly, Rey _would_ survive like she always had. But for the longest, it was only _just Rey, an orphan girl._ However, now things were different. When she thought of her future and its unknown destination, she wasn't alone this time...

"Chewie," she said softly. "Chewie, I love him." Her teeth gritted as the scratching inflection of her voice revealed just how uncomfortable it made her admitting this. Her vision blurred and she blinked, freeing the tears. Han wasn't here to chide her for a lapse in strength. She sniffed and looked up, avoiding the heavy gaze of the Wookie beside her. "And," she continued under measured breaths, "I'm pregnant."

She cleared her throat and swallowed thickly. Chewie twisted in his seat, slightly facing her now. A large paw reached over and rested atop of her wringing hands where he patted her slightly. He groaned softly,

_I love him too._

She turned her stare to him with a terse brow and glistening eyes. She thought of Kylo Ren's dream she had invaded. Ben was just a child at the time, perched along the Wookie's shoulders. Maybe, he had raised Ben alongside Leia and Han. Rey's mouth turned downwards at the idea that Chewbacca had once coddled a small child like Ben, had known him and loved him before he had turned to the Dark side, before he was Kylo Ren.

 _But you shot him_ , she wanted to say. In truth, Rey knew Chewbacca could have provided a fatal blow. He was a marksman, like Han. He could have easily shot Kylo Ren's head completely from his shoulders. The idea made her sick. But he hadn't. His blast had grazed the knight's side, wounding him enough to slow down his rampage, but not enough to kill him. Rey squeezed his paw as she realized Chewie still saw him as child hiding behind a mask of uncertainty.

"Thank you," whispered Rey. _For sparing his life,_ she omitted.

Another pause came, longer this time and filled with only the hum as the engines whirred up the power for lightspeed. The stars before them blurred and then vanished entirely. The Millennium Falcon shuddered and lurched briefly as it entered. They were en route to D'Qar. A transmission had not been sent in regards to their arrival, but Chewbacca assured her they would intercept their flight path and escort them safely. They weren't sure how the Resistance would react to find an enemy aboard. In the common area behind them rested Finn. He was still alive, but badly injured. Rey had done her best to clean and patch the wound with the supplies she found. His heart was strong and his breathing wasn't labored. It was relieving, in the least, that her friend would recover.

Somewhere aboard, Kylo Ren waited alone. They had boarded in such a haste. Rey and Chewbacca ran to the cockpit to prepare lift off and where Kylo Ren wandered, she wasn't sure. Her belly flipflopped with the surmounting unknown. She was bringing Kylo Ren back to his mother, to a Resistance base no less. She could only imagine what that would be like.

"I'm going to go check on him," she told Chewbacca. "If you need me…," she pressed a hand to his warm shoulder and squeezed him gently. He nodded and chuffed shortly.

Rey wandered into the common area just passed the cockpit, finding only Finn unconscious along one of the ship's benches. She respired heavily and ran a hand across her brow. _Everything is going to be alright._ Rey continued down the passageway. Starkiller base was destroyed. Kylo Ren was separated from the First Order, and Finn was going to live.

_Everything's going to be al-_

Rey stopped short as her breath caught in her throat. A door was open ahead, its innards were thick with shadow, but a pool of blood was oozing passed the threshold.

* * *

Rey raced forward, slipping on the crimson mess as she careened into the room. Her hands were wildly slapping the edge of the bulkhead for the light switch. Her palm found the light switch and flew to stifle the scream that ripped through her throat the second she could see. Blood was everywhere. Along the walls were smeared hand prints where Kylo Ren had tried to steady himself during flight. Amidst a thick pool of red, was the knight. Rey dropped to her hands and knees, crawling to his side. She gathered his heavy, limp build into her arms. The air was thick with the sickening metallic tang of blood.

"Kylo!" She yelped, grasping his ashen and slick face into her bloodied hand to steady him. His face twisted in pain. She shook him vigorously and he hissed in pain, waking up at once. "Look at me!" He gritted his teeth and glared at her with smoldering eyes. His wound was hemorrhaging and she needed to stop before he bled out.

But Rey had used up all the supplies she could scavenge on Finn and the pool of blood was slowly widening around her.

Suddenly, he was reaching for her. He looked up to her with tired eyes and licked his lips. "Fix it," his voice cracked.

"What?" Rey breathed. "Fix it?! How?!"

Her eyes locked on to his hand as it reached for hers. He lured it towards his torso and laid it upon the grotesque maw of a wound along his side. It was slick and the sensation of it made Rey's stomach roll.

"With the Force," he sighed with a tight grimace.

Rey blinked incredulously. He was slipping out of her lap so she shrugged him back into her hold.

"Okay," she breathed carefully. "Okay. Okay. Okay." She was talking to herself at this point. She had heard about Jedi's and other Force-sensitives healing themselves. But, of course, she had never done it herself. Furthermore, they were healing _themselves_ and not others. She didn't know where to begin. She pulled Kylo closer and readjusted her legs beneath his back. She used them to prop him higher and the smell of iron assaulted her lungs. Her breaths came in shallow drafts as she fought the smell.

"Okay," her voice quaked as tears threatened her eyes and composure. "Kylo, I don't know how to do this! Listen to me! I don't know what I'm doing!" Her hand remained against his side as she pleaded. In a wordless response, he squeezed her lightly, drifting in and out of consciousness. Blood was seeping through her fingers at a rate she wasn't comfortable with. In fact, she wasn't comfortable with any of what was transpiring. She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. Haphazardly, she connected with the Force with the grace and impact of a crashing ship. The air around her shuddered and vibrated with such intensity it nearly knocked her back. Her arm wrapped tightly around the shoulders of Kylo as she dug into the void. There was a pressure that budded at her temples and then moved to her shoulders. It traversed to her elbows before resonating down her arms and flaring through her hands and fingertips.

It hummed and thrived, rattling Rey down to the marrow of her bones and chattering her teeth. She couldn't breathe but she feared the second she gasped, concentration was lost. So she fought through the suffocation and the blood that surged through her veins as her mind exerted. Pushing her hand into the wound, her fingers splayed out in attempt to cover the wound entirely. Gritting her teeth until her jaw threatened to break, a grunt began to rumble deep in her chest. She couldn't fight it anymore. Her lungs were screaming and burning for air. Finally, she stepped away from the void, severing the connection with the Force like the scorching kiss of hot iron. Her lungs pulled greedily, sucking in deep drafts of air and trembling her shoulders. Her tongue sat thick and heavy in her mouth and she could taste the blood in the air. Her head dropped back against her shoulders she breathed and recollected herself.

She looked down to Kylo Ren. His eyes were closed and he was unresponsive. A cold sweat glistened his brow, clinging tendrils of dark curls to his pale skin. She peeled her hand away from the wound. It was gone. Yanking her hand away, she scoured the sight of his ribs and torn black cloth that surrounded it. Wiping away the blood as best she could, it was clear now; the injury had vanished. She sighed and began to laugh, almost manic with relief. She pulled him closer, careless that he was sodden in his own blood. Glancing around, the small compartment looked like a massacre had occurred. She thought about getting up and cleaning it, but even the thought exhausted her. Her laughter faded into a soft whimper. She cursed aloud and began wiping away the clung strands of hair from his brow.

Finally Rey managed to drag him away from the small compartment after the stench became too overwhelming. She paused to catch her breath in the passageway before she began undressing him. The dark palls were heavy and sopping as she dropped them into a bleeding heap. She had him down to just his skivvies before long. He was still passed out but his face was relaxed and it caught her attention momentarily. He was always scowling, she realized as if seeing him for the first time. For now though, he wasn't and it was almost painful to see just how handsome he was. Her heart thrummed happily.

Rey found a small berthing to which she brought Kylo Ren into. She also scrounged up several rags she thought to be useless. She smelled them for oil before she ran them under the ship's recycled water, then began wiping away the dried blood. Once he was cleaned, she moved onto her own hands, face and everywhere else she managed to get blood on her. She fashioned a pallet on the floor when she was too tired to pick him up and place him into the small rack. Down to just her bra and underwear, she crawled under the blankets next to him.

Staring into the ceiling, she reflected. There was a growing sense of confidence within her. Whether from her own self-actualizing, or her knowledge in the Force. Perhaps a combination of it all. She drew closer to Kylo as she thought. Whatever it was, she was sensing a light at the end of the tunnel.


	15. Chapter 15

Kylo Ren roused to the smell of food. When his eyes drifted open, he found himself lying upon his side, noticing the rack before him, and the pallet beneath him. Lifting his head up to survey the small innards of his confinement, he spotted a tray of food nearby. Though, there wasn't much else to observe. A standing locker just passed his feet. To the left of that was a porthole he could stare out into the stars and vast dead space. A nightstand was bolted into the floor, much like rest of the furnishing, sat directly behind him. He didn't need a moment to recollect his whereabouts. He knew Starkiller base was destroyed. He knew he had turned his back on the First Order, Supreme Leader Snoke, and more importantly, his grandfather's unfinished legacy. It was all gone. All for the likes of a _girl._ His blatant disobedience towards the aforementioned leader would also make him a wanted man. Perhaps a bounty had already been set on his head. Respiring, he dropped his head back onto the blankets to stare into the shadowy overhead. Unfortunately, he was bound to Snoke much like he was bound to Rey, through the Force. From now on, he had to be exceedingly careful when tapping into the void.

_Was it worth it?_

Across the room was a closed door and the soft, muffled tumbling of falling water came through from the other side. He sat up carefully and pulled the tray into his lap. Quietly, he ate, chewing thoughtfully and chasing it all with bitter bean juice provided. It was not a massive plate of food, but it was filling nonetheless. He finished in minutes before returning his attention back to the wash stall. His midsection was sore when he twisted and he touched his fingertips to his ribs gingerly. Whether it was bruised or not, he couldn't tell. Despite this, he _did_ feel tremendously better. He finished off his bean juice and placed the tray back aside. The water was shut off then as he reached for the blankets, drawing them up to his waist while he waited.

As the door to the wash stall opened, a wave of steamed rolled into the space. He glanced back to watch Rey as she padded quietly into the room, certainly noting the scarce tray of food and empty glass. She came to his side and paused, looking down to him. A towel had been fashioned around her torso, concealing the important bits. The bits he wanted to see.

"How do you feel?" She inquired. He looked up at her and considered his response carefully.

"I'm alive," he concluded.

She knelt beside him and gestured to his ribs. Obliging, he turned until she could see. She reached out and grazed her fingertips across his rib cage, inspecting the effects of her good work. It was difficult to detect the slight discoloration within the darkness but his skin had already raised into a puckered scar. Running the pad of her thumb across the site, she pulled away with a frown.

"I still don't understand," she murmured, looking thoughtful. "It took everything from me and there was so much blood." She met his eyes, brooding. "Don't ever do something like that again."

"Right," he muttered in the shadows, sardonically. "I'll _try_ not to bleed out a second time."

A moment passed where they simply eyed each other, either weighing their options or, perhaps, lack thereof.

She had made it this far by his side, despite..., _well, everything_. He was reckless, yes. Impetuous, yes. Pigheaded. Angry. Yes, he was all these ugly things and for an unfathomable reason, she remained with an almost amicable attitude towards him. _Almost._ They met their disagreements and had their spats. Had she been anything less than Rey, the scavenger, he would have killed her for some of the things she had said and called him. Word of her interference and her almost perpetual companionship with the droid had reached him immediately during the for the map. At the time, he was livid to hear this news. Another obstacle he would hack down to get what he wanted. Now, he was relieved that he didn't, as odd as that seemed for the likes of him.

In the beginning, he was so certain he'd kill her. In fact, he had prepared himself. He'd even decided on the fashion of her execution. Not because he w _anted_ to, but because he didn't want _anyone else_ having the privilege in taking her life. Kylo Ren had always been selfish. He was a leader, a Master, and a Knight. He'd never dreamed of it getting to this point with anyone. From the moment Rey came into his possession, he knew she wasn't like anything he'd encountered. He'd never met someone who pushed back, figuratively and literally. Her unwavering resolve stimulated him and he found himself often thinking of her. And suddenly, she was his ally, another Knight of Ren. His lover. His harbinger.

_His..._

Kylo Ren sighed heavily. He lifted his eyes to stare into the small porthole across the room. Standing from his pallet, he decided to approach it. The spray of stars stretched wide and so far. He singled one out. The shimmering lights around his selected star or planet flickered, almost dancing among the others. From the right of it was a scorching trail of a fading light; a star that had died. It's epitaph only now reaching a witness.

"That's where I want to be." His breath clouded to glass. _Unreachable. Remote. Lost._ Anywhere but en route to D'Qar. He didn't want to think about the reaction of the Resistance, or in what fashion his mother would look upon him. Han was dead because of him, by orders of Supreme Leader Snoke. He did it. He plunged the 'saber straight through his father's chest and nothing change. In fact, it made him weaker. The pain did not go away. The struggle against the Light was not extinguished. In fact, _i_ _t grew._

Behind him, Rey remained silent. Neither one dared to use to Force to delve deeper into their feelings. Now was not the time to tap into their sensitivity. Now was the time to be human, to listen, to feel the impotency on the edge of the unknown. He was beginning to understand why Luke Skywalker vanished after the annihilation of the academy. After putting so much time and effort in his grandfather's legacy, he wanted to vanish too. Everything he had help rebuild had been left behind. He was no longer powerful, formidable, and thoroughly feared. The second he crossed that yawning chasm was the second he turned away from it all. It was the second he shed Kylo Ren, Master of the Knights of Ren, and became someone else. His stomach twisted as he reflected, steadily staring out into the glinting stars. His legacy was lost.

_Was it worth it?_

Rey came to his side. She ignored the porthole, the stars, the vastness of it all. It seemed as if nothing to her as she looked upon him. Things that should thrive her with fear, never did. There was no wishful thinking. No sense of escaping what had been done. She stepped closer, taking his hand gently into hers. She turned it and ghosted her lips across his palm before pressing her cheek into it. He faced her then, cupping her cheek and stepped closer. He pulled her into him for a kiss. She kissed him back and when he pulled away, she began loosening the towel wrapped around her. It fell into a soft pool at her feet, allowing his eyes to roam her bare figure like a hungry flame.

She took his other hand and planted in kiss within it as well. She pushed her face through his touch, sliding them along her neck and collar bone. Lower, she went, brushing his hands down the mounds of her breast and the threaded planes of her belly. _The baby,_ he realized. He stiffened as the clarity racked his core, squeezing the air from his lungs. He sank to his knees before her, gripping her hips tightly to press a soft kiss just below her navel. _Because his legacy was not gone._ It was there, _in Rey_. At last, he knew now it wasn't _his_ anymore, but _theirs_. The First Order, Snoke, the Empire. Yes, it was all gone but because the story was finished, at least, for him. The mask. The untamed lightsaber. The timeworn, disfigured remnants of Vader's helmet. It was behind him, where now it suddenly belonged. Relief washed over him like a breeze and with its wake came his surrender. The weight had finally been lifted. Darth Vader was deceased. His love was an intangible strife Kylo Ren would never receive. It wasn't until _now_ did he realize. It wasn't _Vader's love_ he needed all along.

_Because of her, because of their new legacy._

His shoulders quaked and the air heaved from his lungs in a staggering emission. He gritted his teeth when the tears began to sear his eyes and cheeks, despite how adamantly he fought against it. He pushed with the Force, nearly collapsing into the void as the tremor of two tandem heartbeats filled his head and strummed his bones. His heartbeat was there, too, in sync as it had always been, had he paid attention sooner. Kylo Ren of the Knights of Ren, was to be a father now. Like Darth Vader was to Luke and Leia, like Han was to...to someone else. Kylo didn't want to think about that right now. He felt the void shift as Rey reached out to him. Above, she played with his dark curls, running her fingers through the smooth locks as he fell apart at her feet. There was an palpable strength that came in tow when she met him in the Force. It surrounded him, staving off the cold realization that the same thing that had taken Darth Vader _had finally come to seize him, too._

And this did not frighten him.

 _This thing called sentiment._ He had been trying to it escape for so long, but here was no escaping it or the Light. There was no escaping the Force and its hunger for balance. He was a darkness that stained the stars and contaminated the galaxy. Then there was Rey, a roaring light that burned and seared, that stimulated emotions aside from his constant anger and suffocating despair. He wanted to be the isolated star because it was all he knew. His parents, they were never there. A smuggler and a General too busy to pay attention to the likes of a Force-sensitive child in need of acceptance and love. It had been Snoke who offered companionship and a way out of a life of negligence, but he wasn't a father figure. No, Kylo still felt alone. Following orders from a hologram was not enough for him. A soul just as lost and abandoned as he, _that was Rey_. And together, they fit as two halves to a whole.

"I've waited so long for you," his voice cracked. He sounded so fragile, sickening.

Looking back, it was Rey who was the teacher, never Kylo. He learned more from her than anything Snoke's guidance could provide.

She knelt then, pulling his hands from her hips to wrap his arms around her. He _needed_ her as he rose to press his face into the curve of her neck. He breathed in her scent and reveled in how his body responded like a beast stirred awake. Tracing the smooth descend of her neck, he kissed her jawline to her shoulder. The need was growing. How could it not? She was pressed against him and _naked._ He nipped her and her skill prickled. This elicited a soft moan from her as she turned her head away, opening to him. He nipped her shoulder again, planting kisses in the wake of his gentle bites. She took his face into her hands suddenly, forcing him into a painful kiss. He drank her in, savoring how warm she felt against him, how sweet she was as her fingers tangled into his hair. She didn't hate him. No, Kylo Ren knew hate better than anyone. This was not hate.

Kylo steered her away from the porthole, the spray of stars, and the vastness of it all. He took her away from his own fear of abandonment because now there was nothing to fear. They had each other and he knew now he had built a legacy on a dead name. That legacy was not his anymore and that name was just a thought, no more than a fading scar. He laid her onto the pallet and continued kissing her as his hand worked a path down. He brushed her heat to find it slick and he moaned as an ache throbbed through him. She parted her knees, lifting her hips as she sank her teeth into his lip. With delicate fingers, he probed her entrance, painting with her arousal and luring a stream of whimpers from her parted lips. He slipped a finger in and she pressed against the heel of his hand. Her breathing hitched and her hands flew up to squeeze his shoulders.

 _Yes,_ he thought, _it was worth it._

* * *

Rey could barely breathe. She tried not to dig her nails into the flesh of his shoulders but it was ineffective. Especially with the way he explored her and the fact that his hand laid across her nub, driving his heel in slow, arduous circles. She could feel her own pulse throbbing through her like a war drum, causing her to writhe and squirm under the onslaught. Removing his hand, he leaned forward to claim a pert nipple into his mouth while he reached for his waistband. He nuzzled her soft flesh, moaning against her as he freed himself from his undergarments.

She pulled him in for another kiss as he cradled himself between her legs. Their lips met and he drove into her, bucking his hips in a single thrust until she gasped aloud. He held himself there, buried into her with his entire length. They forgot to breathe as a suspended silence filled the air. The veins along Rey's neck bulged and her face flushed hot. She couldn't see, her eyes were squeezed close. There was so much at once. A moan punched a staggering emission from her lungs and spots exploded across her vision like glitter.

Under his breath, Kylo cursed as his arms began to tremble. The pleasure was nearly incapacitating. He withdrew, slick and rock hard. He drove into her a second time, and a third until his breathing turned ragged and choppy. Beneath him, Rey held onto his propped arms. Her legs thrashed under every buck of his hips. And she loved it. She loved the way his curls were hung from his face, draped in sweat. How every time she opened her eyes, their stares met. He liked watching her. He liked witnessing how she felt with him so deep, filling her until pain and pleasure were indistinguishable.

Turning his hips upward slightly, he dragged himself through her, using only his hips to move. Rey tried to swallow another moan, but her jaw dropped and her head tilted back and her lungs heaved for air. The grasp she had around his sculpted forearms tightened.

"Don't stop," she pleaded. She brought her chin back down and peered up at him, watching him as he watched her. Knitting her brow, she began to feel her body tighten and constrict. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't gasp. She couldn't move, not until the climax hit her with such ferocity her teeth clenched while burning her ears and cheeks hot. Her legs locked around his hips at the ankles and her hips rose to meet his.

Kylo dropped to his elbows, furrowing into her neck as his hips worked in a fervent fashion until he, too, couldn't fight the building pressure. His body locked up as he penetrated her to the hilt, grinding into her. He spilled his seed while her core flexed and quivered.

Their laborious breaths filled the confines of the small room until Kylo began to chuckle.

Without question, Rey felt a smile until her own laughter followed suit.

She didn't know why they were laughing but it felt right and for the first time, she saw him smile.


	16. Chapter 16

Strewn across the floor, the bodies of Kylo Ren and Rey were still tangled among another. Lying along her back, Rey was staring into the overhead with the blankets carelessly concealing her. One arm resided at her side where she held Kylo's hand while the other stretched out, palming the cold floor. Their legs were twined together beneath the tousled blankets and their heartbeats were one. Next to her, laid Kylo. His eyes were closed and his breathing was slow. Rey wasn't sure if he was still asleep or had been stirred awake like she. Lowering her gaze, she stared across the room towards the porthole and wondered.

How much longer until they reached D'Qar? It had only been a couple of days since they destroyed Starkiller base. Chewbacca had informed her it would take at least three in travel. By now, they should be at least within the same system. Perhaps they had already exited light speed. Lifting up, Rey felt a twinge of guilt that Chewbacca had been piloting the Falcon alone. She released her hold of Kylo's hand and got to her feet to get dressed.

Despite her better judgement, she felt complete once she donned her obsidian uniform. Having it constrict comfortably around her torso and the familiar sweeping palls that skirted the ship's deck was welcoming. It was familiar. Smoothing out the black uniform, she fastened her hair back and cleaned herself up before heading into the common area.

When she arrived, she found Finn was awake and upright.

"Finn!" Rey exclaimed as she raced across the room.

The second he looked up he reflected the same happiness. Too sore and battered though, Finn did not meet her in standing. Nearly flinging herself into him, she embraced him tenderly, making sure to clear her hands from his back. A searing blow to the back had cauterized the wound immediately. Rey wasn't on the receiving of the infliction but she assumed it still ached and throbbed.

"Rey," he breathed, pressing his forehead into her neck of her uniform. He hugged her tight with what he could muster while Rey ran her hands along his shoulder in a gathering gesture. She couldn't get him close enough but he was alive, and for that, she was satisfied.

Across the room, Chewbacca moaned, severing their embrace. He was still seated in the cockpit as if he had never left.

They were about to enter D'Qar's space defense identification zone.

Finn spared at glance at the Wookiee before turning to Rey with question. "What'd he say?"

Rey swallowed. This was it. Very soon, their arrival would be known. She couldn't help but feel apprehensive. Was she doing the right thing? How would the Resistance respond? How would General Organa respond?

For a moment, she wondered if it best to have run off together. Without Chewie, without Finn. They wouldn't have anyone to answer to but themselves. Something Rey was definitely used to.

"He said that we are almost to D'Qar." She squeezed his shoulder carefully,"I'll make sure they take care of you."

Finn had nothing to worry about, she knew. He was the hero, not Rey and certainly not Kylo Ren.

Finn's eyes drifted over her figure, gesturing towards her carbon-black attire. "They won't be happy to see that."

Rey's stomach twisted with unease before a flare of anger diminished it entirely. _This uniform_ , however sinister it may appear, saved her life. Whether the Resistance knew that or not, was no matter to Rey. She stood from him and dusted the garb meticulously, feeling a rather foreign swell of pride fill her.

"I don't care," she said matter-of-factly, "I'm not changing."

* * *

When Rey returned to the small berthing, she found Kylo awake and moderately dressed. Still just in his undergarment, he didn't have many options. That and his uniform was soiled. As of now, he was looking out of the porthole and the air was thick with tension. An arm rested against the bulkhead with a tight fist while the other rested against his hip. From over his shoulder, she could see into the space. The massive planet of D'Qar was in view. Coming to his side, Rey traced her fingertips delicately along his spine and he tore his gaze from the porthole.

He tried to smile, but it failed to reach his eyes. He pulled her into a deep kiss before pressing his lips into her hair.

"Where is my uniform?" He whispered.

Rey recalled the sopping mess in the passage way as she hugged him. Unless Chewbacca found it and threw it away, that's where she had left it. She highly doubted there were means for cleaning linens and the like on board any how.

"I left it in the passage way once I found a place for you to sleep comfortably." She explained, feeling how his arms tightened gently. "I can go find it, but I don't think it's wearable."

"How bad was it?"

She snorted, "They were drenched. Even I had to clean myself up."

"So you expect me to arrive in nothing but my underwear." He deadpanned.

Rey left out a soft laugh before turning her head to eye the standing locker behind her. "We can check that," she pointed with her stare. She slipped out of his hold and padded towards the locker. Without a lock, it was accessible. Yanking it open, Rey peered into the dark confines, spotting a variety of things. Clothes, boots, utility belts, even trinkets like a Muzzlian squill. She plucked a small leather bag up filled with what felt like stones. Behind her, Kylo switched the light on and now she could see the pink and purple refractions of glinting gems.

"Sasho stones," she mused, looking over her shoulder to Kylo. He stepped forward, peeking into the bag. She knew enough about the stones to know they were quiet valuable. She wondered if Chewbacca knew about them or if they had come into the possession by some other derivative. She tied the top closed and handed the bag over to continue sifting through the locker. Most of the articles of clothing she encountered were the same. Fabrics of white and creme, leather trousers and work boots. Han Solo's signature get-up. Rey frowned when she realized how adamant Kylo would be once he did as well. If Han was still alive, this wouldn't have been an issue. She risked a glance his way nonetheless.

"No," he said with a voice like flint. His eyes were dark. "I will not be wearing that."

Rey threw her hands up, allowing them to slap against her thighs when they fell, "Then wear your uniform that reeks of blood and has a massive hole in the side. See if I care!" She spat. Irritated, she slammed the locker shut and returned to the pallet. She began folding the blankets and placing them along the rack. Behind her, Kylo watched. Once finished, and growing even more irritated that he didn't help, she whirled around and shot him a glare.

"It's going to be really funny showing up on D'Qar and you're in your underwear." Rey seethed, brushing passed him and exiting the berthing.

* * *

As soon as Rey stepped out of the compartment, she stopped short.

"Finn?" She said with surprise, slamming the hatch behind her at once. She crossed her arms tightly as she seemingly glared into the rogue trooper. Her temper was still on the rise.

His brow knitted. Looking passed her, he asked. "Do you have a moment to talk?"

"Ugh," she stammered, "Sure, but not here. That berthing smells odd." She lied, veering him around. "Let's go check on Chewie, shall we?" Walking slowly so that Finn had no trouble keeping up, Rey lured him away.

"I just came from there," he muttered.

The fact that he didn't necessarily press the issue placated her irritation. But now there was something else grating her anxiety; the clarity of Finn's oblivion. He still didn't know about her and Kylo and this worried her. It was clear she didn't care about how the Resistance felt towards their affair, but when it came to Finn, that was different. He was her first friend. The first person to show Rey companionship and kindness. Though, she wasn't entirely sure how he would feel about the matter, she knew it would at least upset him. Another wave of guilt descended her.

Entering the common area, Rey and Finn's attempt at conversation was cut short with the blaring sirens howling within the spaces. Chewie's chuffing and bellowing came from the cockpit as a variety of lights blinked and horns blared. He needed her and he needed her _now._

Rey raced for the copilot's seat. She harnessed herself in and roamed the instruments, silencing those she could and struggling with the few she couldn't. The radars were blotted, tracking systems were locked on the Millennium Falcon, and communications were down.

She slapped the transmitter, hoping to clear whatever signal blocked its frequency, but only choppy static came through. Occasionally a voice broke through, but the words were severed and indistinguishable.

"What do we do?" She frantically looked to Chewie. If they broke into the Resistance defense area, they would more than likely be shot before even entering the atmosphere. What worried Rey the most was the fact that they were still alone in orbit, or appeared so. The instruments were blaring a threat, but where? Rey and Chewbacca fell quiet as they scanned outside the ship's canopy.

Stars. The planet D'Qar. Asteroids.

Where were the star fighters? Why couldn't she get the COMMs back?

"How are we going to tell them who we are?" Asked Rey as she stared into space.

Chewie growled, shrugging his broad shoulders.

Rey sat back as her heart began thrum with unease. She muttered, "We're going to get shot." After all she did to get BB-8 back to the Resistance, it'd be just her luck to be shot down by the Resistance.

"What's happening?" Finn asked from the back.

Both pilots ignored him as they searched for whatever aircraft had them in sight. Slowly, they drifted closer and closer until most of D'Qar blocked out the surrounded space, filling the view from the cockpit with smears of green and blots of blue oceans. The atmosphere wasn't far. As soon as the thought came to Rey's mind, the Falcon jostled. It fell still again, then jostled a second time until finally, they penetrated. The ride went from smooth drift to brute tossing as the Falcon began to thrash. Rey tightened her harness as it descended into the planet's gravitational pull. Having never seen anything like it, Rey couldn't help but picture the starship carcasses that littered Jakku. She didn't want to end up at skid mark across the dirt. She held onto the armrest with a vise-like grip.

"Chewie!?" She cried, "Chewie, do something!"

He roared at her while he held the controls firmly in place. The ship thrashed and dipped until clouds began to blur the view. The instruments began to blare with a volume so loud, Rey could barely think, much less panic.

Then she saw them.

As the clouds broke free, opening their descent with a clear path to D'Qar, they were surrounded. Multiple X-Wings starfighters lined their flanks making Rey's heart plummet. But they did not fire. No, they weren't in a dog fighting stance. The Millennium Falcon was being _escorted._

 _Something,_ Rey wondered, narrowing her gaze as the thick canopies and ascending mountains spanned her view. _Something was in the void._ She felt it and was certain that it, too, felt her...and Kylo. For fear it was Snoke, Rey quickly unharnessed despite the hard nose dive of the freighter. Holding firmly onto the dining table in the common area, Finn stared as Rey made leave. He didn't question where she was going and she had no intentions on answering.

Hurrying down the passage way for the berthing, the hatch drew open before she could reach it. She passed the threshold as it slammed behind her. Kylo was expecting her.

"I can't do this," he growled as he paced the berthing. Rey's breath caught in her throat as she saw his new attire. It was like seeing Han for the first time over with only very few difference in appearance. Where his hair was grey, Kylo's was a pitch black. Where Han was aged, Kylo was youthful, but even then, Rey knew what Han looked like in his early years. Her heart twisted as he continued to pace the room.

"Did you hear me!" He shouted, spinning around to glare at her. She flinched, still stunned at the resemblance, still remembering how much it hurt to see him fall into the bowels of the oscillator. It could be worse, she thought. Kylo could have died as well, or had been taken back to Snoke.

She found her voice again suddenly forgetting why she had come.

"Yes," she whispered. "Yes, I heard you. Come here."

She opened her arms and he came to her. They held each until it hurt. But when it came to Kylo, many things hurt. She was getting used to it, expecting it even. Pain and pleasure were merely opposites of the same spectrum, like light and darkness. Like Kylo and Rey.

* * *

"General Organa." A lieutenant barked, "They've entered our airspace."

There was tension in the room, but none that her cohorts could distinguish or sense, not like she. With her hands propped along the table, Leia Organa nodded pensively. She knew they had entered the airspace long before the radars detected it.

"Ma'am, are you sure about this?" Another official inquired, worry shadowing their countenance. They wanted to launch into an assault. They knew Han had taken to Falcon to Starkiller base. They also knew he had perished because of it. Now the Falcon was here, landing on D'Qar but not with Han Solo.

"I'm sure," she said calmly.

Her son was on that ship or so it felt. She hadn't sensed him in years, but she knew when she felt her son near. Her heart was a rabid percussion, throbbing almost painfully against her ribs. On the outside, she was stoic and resolved. If only the people around her knew, they would understand. Despite her intuition, there was still the fear of the unknown. She _hoped_ Ben was on that drab of a ship but there was only one way to find out.

"Where are they now?" She moved to a holosphere of the D'Qar airspace across the room.

"There, ma'am." A female tech pointed to the small blips making progress across the chart.

"How much longer until they arrive?"

"20 minutes." A voice said from across the command center.

"Get everyone ready on the tarmac now." She ordered, "We don't know who's all on that ship. We can't be too careful."

Around her, the members of the Resistance sprang into actions, radioing teams of pilots, foot soldiers and even starfighter mechanics to muster out on the flight-line. As the room emptied out, General Organa took a moment. Her brown eyes still fixated on the blip slowly moving across the holo-image. She prayed she was right.

* * *

As the an exodus of bodies bled out into the tarmac, they congregated just before the yellow line. Beyond that line indicated many whirring engines and taxiing star fighters as the flanking X-Wings came in on approach. Between their tightly woven formation was Millennium Falcon. While the air crafts made touch down, the dense crowded parted as General Organa made way towards the front. Coming to toe the thick line, she halted. She propped her hands against her hips to steady them. She was so nervous. Around her were the readying of weapons. Blaster rifles, pistols, even wrench-wielding mechanics. After the destruction of the Hosnian system, the Resistance outpost fought with what they had, which wasn't much.

The Falcon came to a still, planting its landing gear firmly while the engines began their spool down. General Organa's heart had not taken a rest. She'd seen this freighter a thousand times in her life. She knew Han wasn't aboard, but she couldn't help feel like it was another of his rendezvous she had grown to expect.

_But her son..._

It had been years. He was a man now, surely. What would he look like? Would she recognize him? Anxious, Leia Organa pressed her clenched hands into her sternum. Her brow knitted while her heart raced.

_Please, please be on board._

The hatchway of the Falcon jutted forward, before finally sliding upward. Around Organa, the sound of hands clenching weapons rattled and tension rose to a new height. Every breath was held. Every eye was trained.

The first figure to step through was...

The sound of a squealing droid peeled through the crowd as BB-8 rushed forward for a man General Organa recognized as Finn. Helping him through the door was another familiar figure, Chewbacca. This should have placated the General's frayed nerves substantially, but her mind and heart were elsewhere. Her dark brown eyes did not leave the threshold of the Millennium Falcon. In her ribcage, her heart hammered.

Another figure came through, cloaked in dark clothes. It was too small and to slender to be her boy, she noted. They faltered at the opening. Their lower half was illuminated by the D'Qar's sun, but the rest was still shadowed from the Falcon. She felt herself drifting forward, being lured across the line and towards the Falcon.

_My son..._

"Ma'am!" Several voices warned as she edged closer.

Rooting in place, Leia Organa watched as the third figure stepped out. The sunlight swathed the girl and the General knew at once what faction she derived from. Another Knight of Ren, which meant...

But her hand trailed behind her, holding onto something..., _to someone._

The female Knight released her hold and stepped fully into the sunlight. Their eyes met and finally...

There was Ben...


	17. Chapter 17

Leia Organa pressed her hand to her mouth as soon as she saw him. For once, she was unable to hide her emotions and her vision welled with tears. _Don't cry,_ she willed adamantly. All these years had passed, and somehow she assumed a child would be stepping from that freighter. How _foolish,_ because that child was decidedly gone. Something taller, older with broad shoulders, and dark tousled hair had replaced her small boy with a man. A man she barely knew. It was jarring how much Ben took after his father. She knew he would have inherited Han's rogue ruggedness from when he was a child, but now..., _now_ she could see just how right she was. As he was descending the ramp, she began memorizing the smallest of details. It was as if seeing him for the first time, all over again. Yes, he was _much_ taller and with thick shoulders and full lips pursed tightly below a straight, long nose. Leia felt her heart flutter and twist as the difference between her memories of Ben then and now became more defining.

She recalled vividly how unruly he was as a child and that despite this, she and Han loved him. She would always love him. The hand she had rose to stifle any noise on her part curled tight into determination. This was her second chance at him. This time she wouldn't let him go, that's where she lost him. That was when he became most vulnerable. She should have never sent him away. He was only a teen at the time, but he was a Force-sensitive, and though, Leia was as well, her talents were never nurtured and guided to their full potential. That's all she wanted for Ben, nurture and a strong guidance. Han couldn't provide the training Ben need. He wasn't like them, but Luke was. He would have had all the answers, if Ben had actually reached him. Snoke had been watching him for some time, waiting for the moment to strike. If she had known...

Gritting her teeth, General Organa inwardly cursed this _Supreme Leader Snoke._ Her son was now confused and misguided. All her efforts to help him understand his sensitivity were in vain. He'd been poisoned and lied to. And this resulted in a wounded catharsis. Who knew what kind of man he was now? If a man, at all. Furthermore, amidst the strife between the Resistance and the First Order, she had some how traded Han for her son. She couldn't have both? No. Life was never that fair. How he was claimed was still a mystery to her, but it wasn't the collapsing planet. She had felt his essence extinguish long before Starkiller base was destroyed. Another thing she was uncertain of, but did it no less pique her curiosity, was the _other_ knight; the girl. Who was she and what part did she play in this? Was she another young child caught in the spider web of lies provided by Supreme Leader Snoke? How did they _both_ get away? Were there more? Three, perhaps four? Would their disappearance spark an intergalactic manhunt? The flurry of questions made Leia's stomach churn with unease. Snoke knew where D'Qar was located. It was only a matter of time.

Despite that the knights both holstered a weapon at their hip, Leia felt if they intended harm, they would have done it by now. Or, at the very least, aboard the Millennium Falcon. Eyeing the division from over her shoulder, General Organa signaled them to stand down as the knights migrated closer. She was taking a chance now in order to appease to their arrival, which appeared more of surrender than a checkmate. The motley group obeyed, lowering their weapons and shrugging off their defensive stance. Returning to face the two Knights, Organa worried on who to address first. It was evident Ben was uncomfortable with his whereabouts. His countenance was a pensive grimace as they came to stand before her. Hours of council meetings and political exchanges over the course of her life could not have prepared her for this moment. She wasn't addressing a senator or another general. No, she was speaking to her son. A boy who had turned into a battle-tested man. A man who had fallen to the darkside.

Leia swallowed the lodged knot and opened her mouth to speak. She wasn't sure what to say. Where to begin?

"You're alive..." General Organa was gone. The division of fighters were gone. The second knight, also forgotten. It was just a mother and her son now.

It was the only thing she could think of. It was the most important.

A muscle in his jaw ticked and his brow drew pensive. "It appears so," said Ben, looking down at his feet.

Leia found her heart reaching out to him. _I'm your mother, not your enemy._ Her eyes scoured his face, imploring him to understand everything that had led them to this moment.

"Thank you for coming," she spoke again, to both of them this time. She could see Han in every angle and shadow of his face. She feared this day would never have come, that her son was lost to the dark side, but he wasn't entirely gone. Now, he'd finally returned to her and hurt in the same heart beat that it soared.

"I didn't do this for you," he stated, sniffing derisively and looking passed her.

Leia's eyes skirted over onto the girl. Their gazes locked and soon it was clear there was something special about her, aside from the obvious being she was another Knight. In truth, separating themselves from the oppressing First Order was a feat within itself. For years, Ben had been under Snoke's manipulation. _Years_. And now all these years had taken a toll on her son who stood before her as a young, bitter man. She nodded to herself. _Indeed, it would take time._ She wanted him to know he had nothing to worry about, that despite all the horrendous actions he inflicted across the stars, she forgave him. And she hoped that he would learn to forgive her as well.

"Nonetheless," she breathed. "I am happy to see you."

She could fix him.

 _Yes,_ her heart swelled. _There's still light in him._ She could see it now, even as he hid behind such disdain and callousness. Even with his hands drawn into tight fists, the struggle still resided within him. Snoke's hadn't gotten all of him. Ben was still in there, smothered to silence by Kylo Ren. The real plight would be _convincing_ him she only wanted to help. Surely he believed she had abandoned him. Surely Snoke made that a priority when he took him away. That would be the first thing she'd cover. Back in the command center, she hadn't anticipated multiple knights in the possession of the Resistance. Dealing with one was certainly lethal. Dealing with two was catalytic. She thought about the detention center across base. They had enough rooms to separate the two, providing this didn't trigger something vile and disastrous.

Ben's lips were pinched as he observed her under narrowing eyes. Shifting his weight from foot to the other, he flexed his hands and muttered,

"Well," evidently uncomfortable as he spoke. "Let's get on with it."

Taking the role as General, Leia remembered there was quiet a chain of command beneath her. This was an opportunity to understand Snoke's motive and thus, counter his next move. She would have to act accordingly and not allow personal endeavors to interfere. Ben was still her son, but first, she needed to interrogate Kylo Ren and the newcomer.

Yes... she reminded herself. _It would take time._

* * *

"Finn!" A familar voice declared. The first exclaim was drowned out by the spooling engines, so it came a second time, louder. " _Finn_!"

The defected Storm trooper turned towards the indicated sound as he ambled across the tarmac with Chewbacca leading their efforts. Catching sight of the bright orange pilot suit as the figure who wore it, crawled out from a star fighter's cockpit, Finn paused.

"Poe?" He faltered in place, shrugging off the Wookiee. Finn shuffled into an awkward and uncomfortable jog towards the parked star fighter. "Poe! You made it!"

The men embraced roughly, exchanging hearty slaps along the back before Poe pulled away. He had a grimacing Finn by the shoulders while he beamed.

"Of course I did!" Poe exclaimed before suddenly lowering his voice into a solemn tenor. "We did it, Finn. _We beat the First Order_."

Nodding, Finn was just about to respond until he saw the smile across Poe's expression fall sharp beneath a knitting brow. He turned around to follow Poe's line of sight, back towards the Millennium Falcon.

What could be-

Then he saw _them_ and his mind drew blank. There, disembarking from the very ship Finn did, was Kylo Ren. It took a moment for his thoughts to register what he was seeing, to understand what it meant. The two men, side by side, stared as the ominous figure of Kylo Ren made his way across the flight line.

At his flanks, was Rey.

He thought back to the moment Kylo had flung Rey threw the trees. How her body slumped motionless there among the snow. Rage had taken over. Rage had brought him to his feet, igniting the lightsaber and slashing wildly through the wind and snow. They had fought and Finn... _Finn had lost that battle_. Later, he awoke aboard the Millennium Falcon, leaving behind Starkiller base, the First Order and..., he assumed, Kylo Ren. It wasn't until much later did he discover Rey was also on board. Alive but...always gone. He knew now what was occupying her time.

 _Rey,_ Finn reflected, was first face to look at him and see someone more than a defected Stormtrooper. _Rey_ , who had helped him flee the First Order, who had piloted the Falcon and made a great escape from the TIE-fighters. She had protected him. They had protected each other. What he was seeing made little sense. Kylo Ren was the enemy. A _shared_ enemy. Furthermore, Finn had been nothing short of haphazard in his attempt to rescue her. He had lied to the Resistance, lead a crew of seasoned warriors despite how unqualified he was, and battled against one of the most feared figures of the First Order. This wasn't how it was supposed to end. She was supposed to fall into _his_ hands, not _Kylo Ren's._ Against his ribs, his heart thrummed hard and heavy, filling with the leaded weight of jealousy and betrayal.

"Finn," Poe whispered next to him.

"Yeah," Finn breathed, nodding. "I see it."

"Was he on board with you?"

"It appears so."

How did he not know? Why hadn't Rey told him _that guy_ would be hitching a ride to D'Qar? Inside, his stomach twisted. When Finn planned on saving Rey from the First Order, _this_ was not what he had in mind. In truth, it made sense. How she was seemed missing during their route to D'Qar. Rey had always been at his side and suddenly, she wasn't anymore. She'd become someone else's shadow. The jealousy in his belly churned like hot coils.

 _Kylo Ren,_ Finn's thoughts seethed, _was not worthy._ He would defile her, hurt her, lie to her. He would be the death of her like the thousands of deaths before her. Finn hadn't realized his was clenching his teeth until an ache throbbed his jaw. Breathing through his nose, Finn tore his eyes away.

"Come on," Poe lightly tugged at his sleeve, "Let's get out of here. I think we both need a drink."

They parted from the congregation just as Kylo and Rey came to face General Organa. Finn didn't want to see that. He didn't want to play any part of that, not now that he realized he was aboard the Falcon with an enemy. He thought back to how she wanted to return to Jakku after they delivered the droid. He detested the idea, now he wished he had allowed her. Perhaps that would have kept her from _him._

As the two departed the flight line, Finn spared another glance over his shoulder. The brooding man that was Kylo Ren and Rey were side by side, closer together than anything Finn and Rey had ever experienced.

 _Yeah,_ he concluded, _I need a drink..._


	18. Chapter 18

 

* * *

They were separated, inevitably. Rey knew that was to happen. They were coined ' _dangerous_ ' and and must be _'detained immediately_.' She heard the chatter even when they whispered carefully under their breaths. She heard it all. From the insults to the scathing glances. _Sith-slut. First Order whore._ Rey knew this was only because of her association. Perhaps they would think differently had they been offered the same choice; service or death. Feeling spiteful nonetheless, she shot back her variety of scowls and glares. Better they fear her, than gain the courage to do something drastic against her.

For now, Rey was being taken to the detention center. About her wrists was an interesting set of binds while two thick bodied guards escorted her from the tarmac. In tandem of the binds was a clear box that surrounded her entire hands. Rey had never seen anything like it. Not on Jakku or among the First Order. Assuming they were some sort of 'Force' proof device, she didn't test her boundaries. The last thing she wanted was to lose the Resistance's trust over something as silly as curiosity.

As they walked, Rey began to notice how different the base was structured. Berms paralleled on either side of Rey on her route to detainment, creating a wide path between them. Upon closer examination, she noted the defining mounds with thick blast doors as entry points within the berms. There was dozens of them as personnel and other officials came and went. The base was simply a series of bunkers tucked away into the side of the earth, obscured by towering trees and thick vegetation. Even from an aerial perspective, they were still well concealed so as long not many bright orange Star Fighter pilots traversed the area.

Around her figures bustled, coming and going. Towing racks of ordnance and drop tanks sloshing with jet fuel wheeled by. Pilots with their helmets tucked beneath their arms watched as Rey was escorted deeper into the Resistance base. They steered her left, towards a blast door with little white flowers that grew around its earthy edge. The door lifted and they continued down into a narrow corridor. At first, Rey couldn't see. The transition from sunshine to shadow was blinding, but a flick of a switch, and the report of lighting firing on, filled the interior.

Flash. The lights washed over the trio as proceeded deeper into the tunnel.

Flash, they walked.

Flash. Darkness. Flash. Shadows. Flash.

The lights came and went. They walked until Rey wasn't sure if they were ever going to reach the end. But they did.

They halted before a wide glass door; her new room.

It was simple but offered very little privacy. The entire door was transparent so she could see into the bright soft, creme colored interior. No windows. A same-shade curtain was drawn closed on the other side of the room, figuring it was her wash stall. A bed, also creme, without sheets or pillows. The plane of the mattress was rippled, ascending near one end where she would lay her head. No light fixtures or lamps, sans to soft illumination in the center of the ceiling, which gave the entire confinement a warm, welcoming feeling. Aside from that, it was minimal. No trinkets or gadgets to occupy her time. Nothing she could use as a weapon or tool. She wondered if Kylo was sent to a very similar holding cell or if he was taken elsewhere, being kin and such.

Fumbling with the binds around her hands, one of the guards began unlocking the contraption and then the cuffs. Meanwhile, the other punched in an access code and the door yawned open. Together, they stepped back, eyeing Rey. This was her cue. She stepped into the room and the door hissed shut, leaving her in what felt like suffocating silence. Glancing around all her new holding cell, Rey felt like a char mark in the sands of Jakku, where everything was the same color, except for her. A Knight of Ren, dripping in obsidian. Something lost, foreign and out of place. She took a seat along the bed, kicked off her boots, and laid back. As soon as her head touched down, exhaustion took reign and she drifted into a slumber.

* * *

"What about the girl?" A voice said from over General Organa's right shoulder came. Her face was swathed in the pale glow as her eyes roamed the surveillance before her. Currently, she was watching the camera feed in the detention center from base command located deep below a lake. The aforementioned had just discarded her boots and laid back while Leia mused on the next course of action. At this point, the general saw this is a crash and salvage. She wanted to conduct as much damage control as possible.

"I haven't figured that out yet," she muttered to the subordinate. "We'll see what she knows about the First Order and go from there."

The figure at her side murmured some form of confirmation before disappearing from the general's sight altogether. Just to the right of the female's feed, several screens down, was her son's. He was not so amiable with his most recent occupation. He hadn't stopped pacing since he was left alone. Growing tired, Leia respired and rubbed her eyes from a pressing ache. This was certainly not the worst thing she had dealt with, but it wasn't her most favorable. Though she was glad to have her son back, she still feared so much influence from Snoke had turned Ben into someone she could hardly recognize. Moreover, the girl. What was she to do with _her?_ In truth, Leia owed a great deal of gratitude towards the newcomer, but like Ben, she must have been taken from a family and a loving home that wanted her back. Having two knights in a single location did not dwell rightly with the remaining Resistance fighters. The First Order destroyed the entire Hosnian system and now it seemed the Resistance had their elite team in custody. General Organa was not willfully dense. She knew this was a catastrophic reaction waiting to trigger. Whatever decision she made, she would make in the best interest of her son. She wanted to undue all the damage Snoke had done to her son and separate him from his dark siding tendencies as soon as possible.

 _A detox,_ if you will.

Turning from the monitors, General Organa eyed two officials nearby with a nod. Chewbacca had not left her side and she knew the strength of a Wookiee was something to behold. He would also be attending this interrogation, just in case.

It was time to play the part, despite how the thought of interrogating her son brought bouts of acidic apprehension within her gut. They knew this was their cue and fell in tandem strides as the crew exited the underground chamber beneath the lake.

When Leia reached the entry way that would lead her to her son's confinement, she felt him through the walls. Torrents of energy ebbed and flowed like desert heat from within. Such aggression and hostility had been bottled up in him now. Even from the flight line, Leia knew he detested being here, knew he detested _her._

Taking a deep breath, she entered.

Ben was across the room with his back facing her as she entered. Before Leia could utter a greeting on her part, he spoke.

"Where is Rey?"

"Safe." She responded.

Now he turned towards her, Chewbacca and the two other officials with a smoldering glare.

"Bring her to me." His voice was low and steady, "I need to see her."

Leia squared her shoulders. "Not yet," she told him. "I need a few things from you."

Narrowing his eyes, her son spoke tightly, "If you want my cooperation, you'll bring her at once."

General Organa considered this if only under her conditions.

"Alright," she told her stubborn son. "Just for a moment."

* * *

_Rey sat cross-legged in the warm sand as she reveled in a gentle ocean breeze. She was draped in a nude dress with flowing sheer sleeves cut at the shoulders and a heaping pool of silk in her lap. Her arms were down and encompassing a large distended belly as the waves sang and reached to kiss her toes. Familiar lips found hearth along her bare shoulder, tracing the vault of it before lingering closer to her neck with more tiny kisses. Closing her eyes, Rey leaned in to him and his arms snaked around her until Kylo, too, coddled her round belly._

_"How much time do we have?" She asked as a breeze took her words into the sunshine and glistening sea._

_Another kiss brushed her neck, just along the pulse, before he answered._

_"I don't know."_

Rey's eyes fluttered awake by the hissing admission of a door, _her door._ Sitting upright at once, a figure entered her domain. It took a moment for her understand and recognize this figure.

"Chewie," she breathed with relief. The towering hirsute frame chuffed affectionately at her before taking a seat at the foot of her bed. Another figure entered right behind him.

 _"General Organa."_ Rey spoke solemnly.

The aged leader came to a pause as the door hushed quietly, drawing her hands to her front and lacing together her fingers. Her familiar brown hair was pulled into a braided bun and though time worn, Rey still found a startling beauty within the woman's face. Not much had changed between Kylo's dream and the woman before Rey now. Subtle crow's feet hugged the corner of her eyes and her lips had thinned, aside from this, she was still lovely even more so with her air and address of a powerful general.

"Thank you," she said. "For bringing him back to me."

Rey blinked, slowly nodding. "Of course."

"As you know," the General continued. "This is a crucial role for the Resistance, for the lives of the galaxy I'm trying to protect. The First Order maybe crippled, but they aren't finished. I need your help."

Rey twisted so that her legs hung from the side of her bed. "With what?"

"Finding Snoke."

Shaking her head, Rey lowered her gaze. "I don't know anything about him. I saw him a few times, but he was just a hologram." And that frightening discovery amidst the Force she didn't want to bring up. Rey wasn't sure providing the information of her sensitivity was a smart move. She had many questions, but not for General Organa.

"You can't tell us anything about what their next plan is now that Starkiller is destroyed?" Organa unlaced her hands with question. "Where the survivors went?"

Again, Rey shook her head.

"How did you become part of the First Order?" The General inquired carefully with her head tilted. Her brow knitted with concern.

Rey reflected, taking herself back to Takodana and the moment she met Kylo Ren.

"I was helping escort a BB-unit back to the Resistance," She began, "There was someone at Takodana that could help us. That's why were were there. But somehow, the First Order discovered us. I ran from Maz's castle as soon as we came under attack and sent BB-8 on his way. I wanted him to get as far away as possible." Rey mused further, her own countenance drawing pensively as the memories unfurled. "Kylo found me in the grove and took me back to the flag shuttle."

"Ben," the general corrected softly, before brushing it aside and continuing with sudden bemusement. "So you weren't a child when you came into custody of the First Order?"

"No," Rey said, "I haven't been with them for very long. I only agreed to become a knight to save my life. They were going to kill me otherwise."

Now it was the General's turn to nod as she contemplated. Her next inquiry caught Rey off guard.

"Where is your family?"

Rey wasn't sure why the query plucked an angry nerve but it did. _If_ Rey did have a family, she certainly wouldn't be _here,_ meddling with intergalactic affairs too large in caliber. Furthermore, the only individual close to her in such a fashion was Kylo Ren. And they had been separated at once. If the General were actually concerned for Rey, she would have never allowed their separation.

Working to speak around the tightening in her throat finally, Rey said, "I don't have one."

"That's unfortunate," the General murmured, and then, "Not even somewhere you call home?"

"Jakku," Rey answered, though it tasted sour now to admit. "That's my home." She thought of Kylo in actuality.

A moment progressed as the General mulled and then nodded. "Very well. Put your boots on. Someone wishes to see you."

* * *

Rey was led out of her current tunnel into an entirely separate one. Come to find out, the centers faced each other and now she wondered if perhaps they were gender specific. Overhead, clouds obscured a twilight sky of burning oranges and deep purples as they migrated across the path. It rarely rained on Jakku. And when it did, the earth was so parched for moisture, everything dried up the second it fell to the ground.

When they entered the new tunnel, it came to little surprise the resemblance between the two. Kylo Ren's confining domain was much closer to the exit than Rey's, having only delved a few meters deep before reaching the holding cell.

Much like Rey's, his room was all creme and even mirrored the same assignment of furniture. He seemed to be waiting for her, facing the transparent door when they reached it. As the access panel was utilized, Rey found herself drawing closer to the glass while the eagerness to touch him began to ascend. The door drew open and Rey darted in.

She threw herself into his waiting arms and they wrapped around her, threatening to squeeze the very air from her lungs. He showered her neck and cheek with kisses before training his mouth onto hers. They kissed deeply and a flicker of shame heated her cheeks before extinguishing entirely. She didn't care that his mother, Chewbacca and two strangers were audience to their intimacy. Their opinions didn't matter. Not in the slightest. If any of the aforementioned questioned the nature of Kylo Ren and Rey's relationship, now it was distinctly clear what they were unto another.

Severing the kiss, Kylo took her face gently into his hands and locked his eyes onto hers. Rey furrowed her brow in confusion and then the words came in a searing, painful fashion that jostled her vision. But what followed in the wake of the sharp pain was a calm, soothing sense. A cold kiss along a burn, or a breeze across a sweated brow.

 _Don't tell her._ Kylo's voice resonated through her.

The startling discomfort knocked against Rey's sight and she squeezed her eyes shut against the vertigo. Blinking carefully, she wondered what he meant, but clarity was not far.

_The baby._

She watched him nod and seal the promise with another warm kiss. And this made her wonder if he heard her thoughts or not. They had never exchanged anything in that degree. Finally stepping away, Rey knew this was the end of their conversation. That was all he wanted to tell her and that was all the time the general allowed as a guard beckoned Rey back into the corridor by a flick of his fingers. Reluctantly, Rey drifted back towards the door, looking over her shoulder as she did. When the cuffs were replaced and the door remained open, Rey was steered away and General Organa entered the interior of the space.

Together, Rey and the guards made their trek back to her holding cell.

* * *

Surrounding the pilot and rogue trooper was a tavern of the sort, dimly lit and hazy from the various pipe smokers. Like any pub, there was the proverbial tintinnabulation and suspended dissonance of conversations that drifted in volume and clarity. The predictable highlight of the night was the most recent occurrence; the arrival of two Knights of Ren. Attempting to ignore those around him talking about the _two Knights_ , sans Poe, Finn had just polished off his fourth fox beer by the time the buzz set in. It certainly took the edge off, but he hadn't stopped thinking about Rey. Certainly not by the help of the patrons around him, but he still couldn't blame them for this fact. It would take several more beers and a long night of rest, maybe a concussion to stop the thoughts that throbbed his head.

"You're right," he murmured, pinching the bottle by the neck and tilting it in observation. "Taste pretty good." The liquid listed to the side and created a layer of fizz as he spoke.

Poe was well passed Finn's marker. The man could hold his alcohol pretty well, but then again, Poe had much more practice than a Stormtrooper who's diet was a strict regimen. Alcohol slowed down the bodies performance and thus, was prohibited. Naturally, higher ranking troopers and officials had access to such concoctions, but Finn was not an impressive rank. He was a drone like so many others.

 _Was_ , he reminded himself. _That life was over._

That was certainly something to look forward to, he considered. Being his own man without orders to follow or a uniform to shrug on. He was looking forward to a lot of things. Sleeping late, eating whatever he wanted, drinking fox beer. Finn tried to imagine how sweet life would be now, of all the things and possibilities, but the same thought reeled him back, bringing forth an image of Rey before his mind's eye.

Surrendering to his pressing curiosity, Finn finally asked. "What are they going to do to her?"

To his left, Poe shrugged, taking a deep pull from his beer before he answered. "Interrogate her, I presume, like they would any enemy of the Resistance."

Finn nodded and tried to hide the sour grimace that threatened his visage. He hoped that such interrogation didn't result in torturous means. Rey was a good girl. She didn't mean harm to anyone. Judging by the way General Organa handled their arrival suggested he shouldn't worry, but he did regardless. He would always worry until someone provided the right answers. How many hours had they been in the pub? Three? Four? Finn lost count. When they arrived, Poe immediately led him to the bar where they kept their minds busy filling their stomachs with intoxicants and deadening the senses. He tried to swallow the confusion and worry, but he couldn't focus on anything else and the beer wasn't helping. Yes, it relieved the ache that laced itself around his heart and made it easier to breathe, but she was still all he could think about. Recalling the days they had been together, his mind unfurled.

The crash on Jakku, traipsing the dunes, looking for Poe and then water. Niima Outpost. A whirring droid. A smack to the head from a wielded staff. Their escape together. The Rebel General. Rathtars and the Kanji Club. She was always at his side, exuding such fearlessness and bravado. It made his heart twist by the thought.

Then Takodana...

Kylo Ren was a thorn in many sides. It was here Finn made his first mistake; leaving Rey. Had he stayed put and saw to it that he kept his promise, she would have never landed in the hands of the First Order. From there, he had to travel all the way to D'Qar, convince the Resistance he was viable, and then head out to Starkiller Base. That was too much time they were together. Who knew what had happened? Did he beat her? Did he tear through her mind? His racing mind conjured an image of her in a cold room, battered and broken, curled up on her side. _That was too much time they were together._

"What are they going to do with the other guy?" Finn inquired again.

"I hope they kill him." Poe muttered.

Though agreeable, Finn still shot him a look and then remembered. Poe had been subjected to enemy interrogation once before. Aboard the Star Destroyer, Kylo Ren had invaded his friend's mind bringing a wake of pain and anguish as he did. Having Kylo Ren in the same sector of space, much less, on the same base must be unnerving. Licking his lips, another question spurred Finn. He wanted to know what it was like, but then again, it seemed Poe was still raw from it and rightly so. Maybe some other time, he concluded. For now, he returned his attention on his empty beer. Lifting it, he gestured to the bartender for his fifth.

"There's no way General Organa will execute her own son. Now that she has him, Snoke is powerless." Finn debated.

As he waited, his tongue felt thick and heavy in his mouth and his face was flushed warmer.

_Yes, the beer was certainly helping him cope._

"Finn," Poe's voice came softly. A hand grasped his shoulder as he spoke. "I know what you're thinking. I've seen the way you look at her."

Finn blinked and considered leaning away until the man's hand dropped. Where did this come from? Why now? Assuming his friend was rambling, Finn didn't respond at first.

"Finn," his friend said again, more ardently. "Let her go. This is already complicated as it is. Ben, Kylo, whatever his name is. General Organa has him now. That's his _mom._ "

This time he did shrug the hand off. "You don't know what you're talking about." It felt good relaying the message that ricocheted in his head.

"No," Poe's hand shot out, taking firm purchase of Finn's sleeve in fist. " _You_ don't know what you're talking about. _You_ don't know what he's capable of. This is a battle you'll never win. That man is possessive and reckless. He'll destroy you."

Finn furrowed his brow, shooting daggers into Poe's sullen expression.

"Kylo is a _monster_." Poe continued, almost shuddering. "If he did a fraction of what he did to me, _to you,_ you'll wish you were dead. I don't want anything bad to happen to you." Poe shifted his lower half so not just his shoulder faced the ex-trooper. " _Please._ "

Finn looked away and onto the counter top of the bar. His new beer had arrived, sweating and dripping until a ring of moisture pooled around it. He spun it around on its base, contemplating before taking a sip. The cold was refreshing. The carbonating bubbles, burning.

On his left, the best fighter pilot dragged a hand down his exasperated face. Another beer, he asked the bartender. Aggravation began to swell in Finn's chest. If Poe was trying to deter him from speaking to Rey, it wasn't working.

Respiring, Finn moved his head in a manner that other's would assume was a nod. "Alright," he murmured, deceptive. "I won't do anything."

Poe pressed his lips to the opening of the bottle, but didn't drink. Thinking.

"Good." He tipped the bottle back.

Outside, it began to rain.

* * *

Hours later and Finn had finally heard enough, not from anyone in particular, but in actuality, just from himself. Too many beers in and the weight of his worry began to cloud his mind. Or perhaps, it was just the fox beer talking. Regardless, he had to speak to Rey. Standing from his stool, Finn held onto the edge of the bar to steady himself. From the corner of his eye, Poe took him by the shoulder.

"I'm fine," he shrugged him off. "I just need a moment to myself." _A moment to find where the hell they took Rey._ Luckily for Finn, he was vigilant and keen when it came to foreign landscapes. Something he probably picked up during his months of training as a foot soldier.

Wheeling around, he stumbled towards the exit of the small, foggy pub and out into the deciduous rain. The smell of damp earth and greens filled his lungs like a sweet intoxicant. He breathed deep until it hurt and this helped clear his mind, but it also supplied an even heavier conviction for what he was about to do.

He trudged forward, heading for the place he knew to be the detention center. As he walked, the rain fall seemed to excite the nocturnal creatures hidden in the thicket, chirring and trilling ambient choruses as rain pelted the shoulders of his leather jacket and mottled his crown. He kept his eyes to the ground to avoid curious onlookers and also to steady his steps. Maybe so many beers was a bad idea.

When the access door of the detention center came into view, the current guards on post eyed him with keen observation. Finn approached slowly, offering a tepid smiled. Whether they were familiar with his face or not wasn't indicated but access was granted, nonetheless. He drifted from the nighttime shadow into the tunnel's and began his search.

He walked, and he walked, and he walked some more. It seemed the detention center was barren, but how? Where, at least, was Kylo? He knew for certain _that_ guy would be locked up in here. Between the pools of light were thick shadows and with every shadow he crossed, his anxiety grew with impatience and worry. _Where the hell is she?_

Just when Finn was a few steps short of panicking, he came across her. Her cell was the only domain still illuminated. Expecting her to be awake, Finn found that she was not. Instead, she was curled up on her side, fully clothed, boots and all, fast asleep.

He wrapped his knuckles against the thick glass, eliciting a dull, useless report.

Nothing.

He knocked harder.

She stirred slightly, flipping onto her other side and wiggling for comfort. The glass was too thick to lure her awake. Stepping back, Finn eyed the sides of the transparent door for perhaps an access panel or intercom. His effort proved fruitful when he spotted a small box to his left. Flipping the cover up, he ranged over the instruments and switches until he found what he was looking for. Pressing the button, Finn paused, allowing the static to clear before speaking softly.

"Rey."

At once, her eyes snapped open and she shot the door a bewildered look.

"Sorry to wake you," Finn couldn't help but smile, "I just wanted to talk."

Rey lifted up from her bed with a tired and furrowed brow. Her mouth began to move, but Finn couldn't make out what she was saying.

"Come closer to the door." He asked, "I don't think the box can hear you from there."

She sighed. He knew this by the dramatic rise and fall of her shoulders before she pushed off from the bed and ambled towards the door.

"What are you doing here?" Rey's voice came through the small speaker.

"I came to see you," he admitted, rather sheepishly.

"Why?"

It was Finn's turn to sigh. "I just...," he lowered his head and tapped his foot. "I want to know why you brought him here."

Rey stared at him with an expression he couldn't pin.

"Because...," she muttered. "Because family is important. You should know that."

He scoffed derisively. "Right, I'm sure Kylo was thinking that while he plunged the saber into Han's chest."

A muscle ticked in Rey's jaw and she looked away. "This is all really beyond you, Finn." Her voice was cold and flat.

"Then help me understand." Finn shot back. "What happened to you when they took you? What happened to the Rey I knew aboard the Falcon? Where is she!"

Rey glowered at him, opened her mouth to deliver a more-than-likely snarling remark when an emission across the room diverted her attention. Finn heard it too, a hissing loud enough for the intercom to pick up. He followed her line of sight onto a cloudy discharge seeping from the four corners of the room.

"Finn, what are you doing?" Rey asked, turning from him to step away from the dispersing gas.

Finn glanced to the access panel where his finger pressed firmly against a singular button. "I'm not doing anything."

Rey spun around, slapping the glass with her palms. "Stop it! Let go of the button now!"

He did and took a step back to show her, but the gas continued to fill the innards of the compartment.

Panic had now stricken her face as she glanced about the edges of the door. "Finn, open the door now!" Her mouth read. Acting at once, Finn fingered every key available on the access panel. A light continued to flicker red as he mashed a variety of sequenced numbers, hoping by chance he would enter to correct code. On his left, Rey began to hit the thick glass with her hands, and even shouldered it brutishly. Now the gas had reached the door and he could make out the wisps of smoke distort around Rey as she fought to break out. Her face was becoming flushed and the veins in her neck engorged. She was trying to hold her breath.

"Hold on!" Finn cried, continuing to smash the buttons, even running the palm of his hand down the entire set of keys. The light continued to shine red.

Now it was Finn's turn to hit and kick the glass, but both parties effort was useless. The door was too thick.

"Rey, listen to me!" He screamed in the hallway. "Use the Force!"

She understood him and drew still at once, planting her palms firmly against the glass. The air around Finn began to shudder and there was a dull thundering emission he felt in his bones. Even the lights along the corridor flickered and waned. The glass vibrated in its place before a crack splintered the silence. Flinching, Finn looked upward onto the small splinter, only about an inch long and near the corner.

Before him, Rey relaxed, sucking in a large gulp of air and immediately choking.

"Again!" He pleaded.

Her brow tensed and she squeezed her eyes shut again. The thundering began, the air resonated, Finn could feel the pressure in his bones return. Another crack, still not enough, but longer. A light exploded on his right, spilling shards onto the concrete. The exertion was too much, she sucked in another deep breath. This time, she gagged and sank to the floor.

"Rey!" Finn screamed, dropping to his knees with her. He smacked the glass with his palm. "Rey!"

Then a new sound reported. A more distinct, staccato rhythm. _Foot steps._

Finn got to his feet, looking between Rey as the gas began to take over everything, thickening until it was hard to see her at all, and the sounds of the footfalls.

A pool of light captured the figures approaching, subsequent was the crunching sound of glass.

It was General Organa, Chewbacca and several others.

"General Organa!" Finn shouted. "Something's happening! There's a gas leak in Rey's room." Albeit, he knew it was far too concentrated and organized to be anything less than controlled. He was praying it wasn't the latter.

Chewbacca side stepped around General Organa and in a single stride, accosted Finn immediately. The vise-like hold along Finn's shoulders only intensified his panic. Forthwith, Finn knew it was controlled. It was intended. Planned.

"What are you doing!" His voice scorched his throat. "Stop this!"

"Calm down," a nearing official snarled at him. "What are you even doing here? You're not authorized personnel."

Chewbacca took a step away, widening the space between Finn's kicking boots and the clear door. Rey was lying on her side now, motionless and unresponsive. General Organa came over to observe that the gas was beginning to thin and dissipate.

"General Organa," Finn panted, struggling against the Wookiee's bruising hold. "What are you doing to Rey?"

Ignoring him, she punched in the access code as soon as the smoke cleared. Rey's arm flopped out like dead weight and General Organa knelt down to press a pair of fingers to Rey's neck.

"Cuff her and get her ready." The general muttered.

The uniformed figures moved around the general and began applying the cuffs to her wrist and feet. Once this was done, the heavier set subordinate gathered her into his arms and stood.

"Wait," Finn breathed, straining against the strong paws gripping him. "Wait, wait, wait! What are you doing! Where are you taking her?!"

The door to the holding cell slid shut as the Rey-toting guard turned and migrated down the corridor with his aid in tow.

"No." Finn breathed, "No! Rey! REY! Wake up!" He shot General Organa a glare. "What are you doing with her?!"

With her hands propped akimbo, staring into the retreating figures, she muttered,

"Sending her back to Jakku."


	19. Chapter 19

The girl was useless..., that and a distraction, General Organa realized. Rey provided little to no information on Supreme Leader Snoke. The answers she sought dwelled within her son alone. It would be a waste keeping Rey here when she had a home on Jakku. Not to mention, it felt better sending her off back to the life she had stolen from her. Ben was already overwhelming responsibility within himself. Although, Leia did feel somewhat remorseful, a feeling she couldn't fathom why, this was for the best. One knight was enough. Two, that was too much and put a large target along the Resistance's back. With the destruction of the Hosnian system, the New Republic was decimated. What was left of the Resistance was, also, what was left of the New Republic. Furthermore, Leia also hoped that by separating them and putting enough systems between the two, Snoke would split his resources when attempting their recovery. This notion was inevitable.

Half an army was easy. A full army, well, she'd rather not.

And in the case Snoke came for Ben alone, then she did the girl a favor. Better Snoke forget about her entirely, then realize she was on D'Qar as well. Drastic, yes. Selfish, very. But at this point, with so many years lost, Leia just wanted her son back. She already lost him once. She lost Han, too, for good. This went deeper than some foreign girl from a desert planet. Whether Rey understood her intentions or not, wasn't a matter Leia wanted plaguing her mind. The deed was done. The decision was made and now it was time to ready for what was left of the First Order.

They would come. They always did.

Before her, the Millennium Falcon took aboard two subjects and now came to a stable hover. The landing gear retracted into their respective wells while the exhaust kicked up loose bracken and dirt. As the engines roared, the falling rain lifted and spun against the thrashing jet blast. At her right was C-3PO, questionable as ever.

"Princess-, erm, I mean _General._ " The droid's articulated parlance began, "Are you sure this was the right thing to do?"

The Falcon rotated around until the forward fuselage faced west before the thrusters powered up for accelerated flight.

For a moment, General Organa considered ignoring him, but decided against it.

"This is about liability," she muttered, observing as the Falcon became smaller and smaller until diminishing into the thick overcast. The rain fell faster, whipping the fabric of Leia's uniform. "If I'm to coax my son into remission, I can't have things reminding him of his debts. Not to mention, I'm sure she'll be happy to find herself back on Jakku. That and she was too much of a liability in the end."

C-3PO considered this as he, too, stared off into the direction the Falcon had taken.

"Liability," the droid echoed curiously. His golden optics shone bright contrast to the shadows. "What is to become of young Solo?"

"He stays until I get my son back."

Turning against the wind, General Organa and C-3PO made their way back to base command.

* * *

 _Ah, shit._ Finn thought, still lingering in the corridor of broken glass, still thinking about the slack, slender frame of Rey as she was carted away like dead weight. Even his arms still throbbed where Chewbacca had gripped him.

_Ah, shit._

Rey was gone, to be sent back to Jakku, possibly to create some sort of diversion for Supreme Leader Snoke. Was she supposed to be bait? Was General Organa using Rey to throw off the Supreme Leader? Certainly not, Finn told himself. Certainly General Organa knew Kylo Ren was Snoke's most prized possession. Rey was nothing to him. But _Rey_ was also _something_ to _Kylo Ren_. Even he could see that, despite how much he wished otherwise.

Finn was no Jedi, or Sith. He didn't need to be to know this was bad, that it would get _much worse_ once Kylo Ren figured out what happened. If Kylo didn't already know, which Finn had no doubt he did. He probably felt her panic just as easily as Finn witnessed it. It glistened her eyes and drove her to beat against the glass with her fists. Yes, Finn realized, Kylo Ren definitely knew.

It didn't take a special sensitivity to an unseen Force to know somewhere, Kylo Ren was more than likely losing his damn mind.

 _"That man is a monster. He's possessive and reckless. He'll destroy you."_ Poe's words echoed in memory.

If so, no holding cell in the entire galaxy could seize Kylo Ren in a fit of rage.

* * *

Unfortunately when Rey woke, she was no longer in her holding cell, but aboard a ship. And it wasn't a terrible dream that plagued her mind. It was all real. It happened. General Organa had turned against her, filling her holding cell with sleeping gas so she couldn't fight or run. And the question that weaved and braided through this recollection was _why?_

Glancing around, it took a moment to realize she was aboard the Millennium Falcon. Whether or not they were in flight was undetermined. The porthole provided across the room was too dark to tell if it was space she was looking into, or something else.

Pushing the covers aside, she rose out of bed and hurried into the passageways. The last sustaining memories were fresh. Even the panic still thrummed her heavy heart as she stalked the corridors, looking for whomever piloted the freighter. The stagnant oppressing sense of abandonment was there, wrapping around her limps, clouding her thoughts, mixing up her emotions. Rey couldn't decide if she was angry, sad, devastated... She couldn't pick. They were all one and the same.

The ship was still, not even the subtle sway she always denoted when en route. They must have landed somewhere. Rey reached the innards of the common area, just forward of that was an empty cockpit, beyond that, a starry night sky. She migrated closer, descrying along the dark horizon a jagged, uneven pattern that reached into the celestial abyss. _A mountain range._

Tilting her head curiously, Rey studied the peaks and valleys that rose and fell. Reluctantly, she began to recognize the terrain.

 _Fallen Teeth_ , a cluster of mountains she knew well. _On Jakku._

Overwhelmed by the fact, Rey slapped a hand over her mouth and breathed through her nose. Nausea threatened to expel her already-empty stomach. It rolled and twisted, summoning more tears and more suffocating sorrow. This was the last place she wanted to be.

 _Kylo..._ Her heart ached.

An issuance of sound behind Rey caused her to whip around. Her eyes locked onto the sitting figure at once.

"Chewie," she breathed, the tears falling fat and hot down her cheeks. He was waiting within the common area for her. "Why am I back on Jakku?"

His paws rose and fell with a defeated flop, moaning softly. _It's your home._

"This!" She spat while jutting a finger towards the canopy of the cockpit, towards the craggy rock formation she never wanted to see again. "Is not my home! _He_ is my home! Take me back!"

Silence filled the common area like the thick gas that swallowed Rey's holding cell. His head was lowered. He didn't like it anymore than she did.

"You're just following orders," she whimpered, tasting the tears on her lips. "What did I do to deserve this, Chewie? I brought him home. I saved him from the First Order!" Her voice began to rise to a shrill sound as she pleaded. "I took him from Snoke! I deliberately disobeyed the Empire to bring him back! What did _she_ ever do?"

A tremor took her shoulders as the crying grew in volume and intensity. Rey couldn't stand. She didn't want to stand. Sinking to her knees, Rey pressed her face into her hands to soften her cries.

Coming back meant a number of things. It meant starting over again. Her fallen Walker would be seized by other scavengers. Her speeder would most likely be dismantled, robbed of parts, and traded off for polystarch rations. Her quarterstaff would surely be gone, also traded or just simply stolen. Everything she had harvested over the years. The miles she had marched to find those trinkets and valuables would be lost.

On top of it all, she was with child. True, it wasn't out of the ordinary to find a woman, swollen and wobbling, around Niima Outpost, but it was difficult. And sometimes, neither survived. Either the stress of the environment wouldn't allow a full delivery, or it would claim both mother and child.

Moreover, Rey knew another ritual would be formed and this brought a painful grimace to her visage. The hours she sat, waiting in the dunes for a transporter to arrive, toting her parents or friend, to say her waiting was finally over...

But this time, her heart would not yearn for a unfamiliar friend or an unknown family...

And to think, she once wished to be back on the shifting sands of Jakku.

* * *

Against his better judgement, Finn headed for the male's detention center. Against his better judgement, he entered the corridor. Only a few working lights remained, from the storm or something else, Finn wasn't certain. But the deeper he looked, the darker the corridor became.

Against his better judgement, he led himself to Kylo Ren's holding cell.

Or what was left of it.

The entry way lights barely penetrated the thick shadows that surrounded the knight's cell, but it was just enough to make out a few, terrifying details. That and the lone cell light still worked, partially. Beneath his boots was the proverbial c _runch_ of glass. It was the only sound that interrupted the thick, almost tangible, silence.

Not like the small shards of glass Rey had exploded back in her center, the corridor was littered with thick, bloodied chunks of the holding cell's door. Smears and mottles of blood stained the concrete that surrounded the area. A trickling trail of blood led back into the innards of the cell. The singular light fixture in the center of the domain's ceiling flickered with instability, flashing moments of visual clarity long enough for Finn to feel the rising apprehension ascend his spine.

It was everywhere.

Blood.

All along the walls in morbid sweeps as if he painted it intentionally. The wash stall curtain was also in shreds. That too was speckled with dark spots. His room was in a disarray. The bed was shredded, leaving tufts of torn mattress scattered in every direction. It looked like a grenade had went off, leaving no survivors.

But Kylo Ren was nowhere to be found.

* * *

Chewbacca was considerate enough to orbit the planet until the Jakku star made its rotation. Knowing the desert had a few peaking hours of heat, but unsure of when, he decided it best to wait until dark, for Rey's sake. As soon as dusk set, the Wookiee touched down.

Readying to make her trek across the dunes, Rey cleaned herself up and stood by the hatch as Chewbacca disappeared into one of the storage rooms. He told her to wait and she did. When he came back, a black duffle bag was in tow, heavy by the sway of it. He proffered the item silently, nodding for her to look inside.

Taking it carefully, Rey sat the bag down and drew the zipper open. It was heavy and filled with variety of things. A compass, though she didn't need one. A blaster. She _would_ need that. A medium sized pack of food.

Rey paused to glance up gratefully at him. He groaned softly.

And something else. Something heavier and beneath the items, she sifted carefully, ultimately finding Kylo Ren's mask and her lightsaber. Yanking the heavy metal from the satchel, Rey pressed it into her bosom, clutching it tightly while the tears spilled over her cheeks. She didn't want to be alone anymore. Why was she always alone? Why did it invariably end up like this?

Beneath the helmet, unseen at first, was another item. A small draw-string leather bag. Tucking the helmet beneath her arm, Rey plucked up the bag and shook it.

_Stones.._

Sitting on her heels, she loosened to top, pried it open and peered inside.

 _Yes,_ she smiled. _Sasho stones._

The very stones she had found in the standing locker in Han's room.

Sasho stones are worth 5,000 credits each and there was at least a hundred in the back. _At least!_

Relief washed over Rey when she realized she already had a head start. The value of the stones, traded in for polystarch rations or anything else she wanted, could feed her for _years._ Hopefully, it would't take years for Kylo to come for her.

Because there was simply no other options.

* * *

Finn turned to run, to warn the other's that Kylo Ren had escaped, but bumped into what he thought to be a wall.

Until a hand shot up and took firm purchase of Finn's throat. The light within the cell flickered, washing Kylo Ren's manic and blooded face momentarily. Finn realized that there was nothing touching him at all. He gagged, throwing his own hands up to claw at the invisible grip that choked him. Beneath his palms, his skin was stretched tight, the veins engorging. His feet were barely touching the ground. He began to thrash, kicking his legs against Kylo's shin, but the monster was undeterred. The constriction tightened, causing Finn's eyes to bulge and his thoughts to scatter.

With every flicker of the light, Finn saw more and then saw less. Kylo's arms were shredded from the broken glass and painted from all the blood loss. His shirt was a crimson shamble with ribbons of cloth hang from his torso. Sweat beaded his brow, clinging tendrils of dark hair against a pale, malicious face.

Darkness. He could hear the blood roaring through his ears.

The world pitched and Finn's felt his back slam against the wall, pinning him there.

The light behind Kylo Ren's frame flickered again and again, a stop-motion presentation as the knight rose his hand.

"No!" Finn managed with a breathless shriek. He knew what was about to happen.

Then it came.

The searing, white-hot agony. The flood of his veins as Kylo Ren dove into his mind felt like scorching iron, charring his flesh, bubbling his skin until it drooped from his bones. As the images unfurled, filling him to the brim with every fear he had ever possessed,

Finn began to scream.


	20. Chapter 20

There was a ringing in Finn's ears, or maybe it was the resonating volume of his screams he was hearing? Either way, the sound could take him away nor did it lessen the pain. Nothing could lessen the pain. As Kylo Ren continued to scour his mind, Finn was helpless against the flood of images, sounds and sensations that came in tow. None of which were pleasant. It was like being picked apart, starting from every most sensitive memory he possessed. He saw himself as a child then as a teenager. Taken. No, s _tolen._ The surmounting confusion as training began, the shedding of his adolescents to become a Stormtrooper. Another designated number. Another killer.

The pain tripled and another anguished scream bubbled up and exploded from his lips while the images began to move faster, nearly blurring the memories together. Kylo Ren was sifting sporadically, delving and probing, rifling with such a manic fashion, it nauseated its victim with pain.

Tasting blood, Finn choked on his wails and tried to squeeze his eyes shut. It was an attempt to staunch the pain. But that was impossible. Kylo wouldn't allow it. It seemed as soon as Finn could breathe through it, the man switched it up. The once smooth-slicing pain turned jagged and erratically driven, grating his senses raw.

Then he saw Rey.

He felt the Jakku heat, tasted the thirst that scorched his throat. Then Takodana. A flash of the Crimson Corsair that agreed to taking him to the Outer Rim for exchange of work. The images slowed by a fraction, but the pain was still intense. Any longer and he feared he might pass out. _If only..._

Then the corridor came, much like the very one he was dying in, or _felt_ like he was dying in.

Now, with his eyes squeezed tightly, the images were more concise as if he were in a dream's state and cognizant. They were fresh and vivid. Defined down to reflection of his own countenance along the glass door. The image was of Rey, lifting up from her bed, inquiring his visit, striding across her room.

 _Tsssssssssss_ came the report of gas as it dispersed the innards of her confinement. Her panicked face. The muffled smacks as she slapped against the glass. Finn, smashing every button possible button along the key panel, hoping _something_ could set her free. He tasted his own fear and concern on her behalf, just as if he were witness to the first occurrence.

For the second time, Finn saw her sink to her knees, coughing and hacking, as the gas took over her senses and consciousness. Her slumped, incapacitated frame thereafter. The footsteps. General Organa and Chewbacca with her cohorts. In between the vision was his own voice. The same plea over and over, like a mantra.

_Where are you taking her?!_

"Jakku."

The pain stopped.

Finn was dropped to the floor along the broken glass. Gasping and sprawling out along the ground in a heap of tremors and fading agony, Finn tried to regain his composure. At this point, not even the pinching shards phased him. Not after what he had just experience. _Nothing_ was more relieving than walking away from that.

"Jakku...," the knight repeated again, bewildered. Kylo Ren stepped back from his good work, certainly contemplating everything he had just witnessed. He knew now how Finn felt about Rey, decidedly. He knew Finn loved her, would do anything to protect Rey, even if that meant keeping her from Kylo Ren.

Throat dry and tongue thick and heavy in his mouth, Finn cracked open his mouth to speak.

"I tried." His voice scratched, still breathless. His vision swimming with vertigo as he tried to focus on the knight. "Please understand."

A warmth spread from his nose and trickled onto his lips. Curiously, he blotted his fingers along the indicated source. A nosebleed. He blinked and shook the fog and disorientation from his head, wiping the remaining trickle along his sleeve. Lifting up, Finn pressed his back to the wall and drew his knees up.

Before him, Kylo Ren's footsteps joined the broken glass as he leaned against the opposite wall. His arms and shoulders were still bleeding from his efforts at escape. Successful as they were, if he didn't report to medical, he'd bleed out. It was the first time Finn had seen him so... _exposed._ Every encounter Finn had with the Knight of Ren was only in passing and he was invariably shrouded in dark garbs and a unpleasant mask. It was like he was always seething with anger or destroying something, or _someone._ However, the man before him now looked almost lost and certainly disheveled. Aside from the crimson mess that dripped from his finger tips and stained his clothes, that is.

"She did this." Kylo whispered, staring down the corridor. His fists curled, and the blood trickled faster from his knuckles.

He took a step, but before he could charge out into the rain and kill every Resistant soldier left, Finn cried out.

"No, don't!"

His hands reached up. For what? Did he really think he could grab on Kylo and suffer no repercussions? He retracted his arms, still breathless but washed with relief that the pain had dulled to a faint throb. "She's only trying to help you."

Kylo Ren moved and the crunching sound of glass caused Finn to flinch reflexively. He was crouching now, inches from Finn's face and his heart hammered against his rib cage. Finn wanted to turn his head away, to break eye contact, but in case Kylo decided to strike him, the least he could do was expect it.

"She's not trying to _do anything_ but control me." Kylo's voice was so low, it sent a tremor of fear through Finn. How could Rey fall in love with something so formidable? What did she even see in this man? Was he this cruel to her?

"Perhaps," Finn licked his lips, trying to find the right words. "But going out there and destroying everyone isn't going to favor well for you or anyone else. You kill those innocent people and they will lock you away and you'll never see Rey again."

For a moment, neither spoke and then...

"Do you think locks and holding cells will keep me away from her?"

Behind Kylo's frame, a small shard of glass fell, hitting the deck with a little _tink!_

Finn swallowed and shook his head quickly.

"That's right." Kylo Ren whispered. He tilted his head, contemplating with keen, narrowed eyes. The smell of iron assaulted Finn's nose, sickening him. The flickering light within the cell still struggled to stay illuminated, but really, it just added to the fear effect that was Kylo Ren. With every quick descent of darkness, Finn's fear spiked. Catching sight of a predator and then losing that same sight strummed his heart sporadically.

"You've made it this far," Kylo Ren continued. "You escaped the First Order. Impressive feat, wouldn't you think?"

Finn blinked. Was he genuinely curious or did this lead to somewhere he'd rather not to go?

As if denoting Finn's apprehension for small talk, Kylo continued.

"The only reason I came here, FN-2187, is because of her. I'll do anything for her." He paused. "Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand." Finn nodded. Inside, his gut twisted. He didn't want to acknowledge _them;_ Kylo Ren and Rey. But those efforts were becoming quite vain.

"Good, because I'm going to need your help."

* * *

The night time temperature was a stark contrast to the blazing midday heat on the planet Jakku. Without the sun, the desert was a frigid travel.

Before Rey and Chewbacca parted, they embraced and Rey was very reluctant in letting go. This meant starting over and being alone, once again. Albeit, she wasn't as helpless as she was when just a child. True, Unkar Plutt had helped _raise_ her, if one considered such a part as raising, then sure. But Unkar didn't want Rey anymore than Rey wanted Unkar. It was sheer hate and discontent for as long as she could remember. Everything about that Crolute drove her away. His fleshy, saggy visage with two black, beady eyes squished into his face. Even now the thought of him caused Rey's lip to curl in disgust. Now she'd have to go back to trading with him. She had no choice. He'd made it clear to the other traders located around Niima Outpost that business with her was prohibited. Rey knew it was because the other's wouldn't take advantage of her findings like Unkar did. But in attempt to avoid all qualm and quarrel with Plutt, they followed orders.

As the sound of the Falcon's hatch drew closed, Rey was left alone, accompanied by only her soft steps through the sand. She reached the peak of a nearby dune as the engines spooled to life behind her. Such noise would attract unwanted attention, Rey was certain, but she was a good enough distance away before any bands of scavengers investigated the sound.

Watching the Millennium Falcon carefully lift from the sand, Rey paused as the freighter turned skyward and then faded into the stars. Turning along the peak of her newly conquered dune, Rey surveyed the area that surrounded her. Descrying the range of Fallen Teeth, she headed west of that.

_Alone again._

Rey tried not to think about it as she traipsed the sandy hills. She didn't want to think about it. What she wanted to think about was Kylo and how happy she would be when he came for her. It was simple really and she had no doubt in her mind he would come for her.

Now, it was a matter of waiting, and that, Rey was very good at.

* * *

"I need to get out of here." The voice before him darkened. "I can do it my way, or you can help me."

Finn nearly made a scoffing sound, but swallowed the noise just in time. He was forgetting who he was talking to.

"Get you out?" Finn's eyes darted towards the shattered glass door behind the ominous figure that was Kylo Ren. "I thought you _were_ already out."

Thunder filled the cavity of his ears and down the hall. On both sides, lights exploded, sending a thicker veil of shadows upon them.

"Y-yes! Alright!" Finn stammered, flinching from the shattering glass. "I'll help you get out of here!"

_But how?_

* * *

By the time Rey reached her fallen Walker, the sun began to rise. Treading carefully, she recalled all the traps she had positioned around her camp and ensured she didn't fall victim to any of them.

As she migrated closer, spotting every snare erected, she noticed something.

_None had been set off._

Before she allowed a moment's relief, she kept moving. If her domain lasted this long without trespassers, she would be elated. She figured she had made quiet a name for herself, fighting when she had to and standing up to Unkar Plutt and his incessant injustice. She didn't think it costed her much more than a certain regard from other's, but who knew? Perhaps she had done more than just show other scavengers she wasn't to be trifled with? Regardless, the closer she became to her Walker, the more clearly untouched home appeared.

Stepping inside, sand had taken over from the winds. Without Rey's constant upkeep, and with her makeshift door wide open, it was close to taking over.

Setting down her duffle bag, Rey rifled through the contents for the blaster Chewbacca had provided her. Along the upper receiver was a flashlight. Disconnecting it from the frame of the weapon, she ran the beam of light across the dwellings of her space. Certain now, no one had entered the Walker and picked her clean.

A heavy sigh of relief sagged her shoulders. Keeping the light on, Rey sat back against the nearby bulkhead and allowed herself to slide down until she sat. Exhaustion was not far and hunger pangs now rumbled her stomach. Dragging the pack closer, she sifted around until she found the food. She placed Kylo's helmet at her side and opened the first pack of food. She chewed slowly and took small sips of water. Rey had no intentions of eating the entire pack. She wanted to make it last long enough before she had to venture to Niima Outpost.

Once again, the thought of dealing with Ukar Plutt made the food taste sour. She forcibly swallowed the last bite and washed it down with a gulp of water. Tomorrow, well _today,_ would be just another scorching life within the desert. Recalling the dry heat that sat across the land like a heavy blanket reminded Rey of her attire. One by one, she began to peel away the layers.

Sitting in just her under garment, Rey began tearing and cutting away the cloth until it was more desert-appropriate.

* * *

Was Finn really doing this?

_Yes. Yes, he was._

He was helping Kylo Ren escape.

Everything about the decision screamed at him internally. Once before, he was just another suit of white armor brandishing a blaster. Then he became a Resistance fighter. Now he's helping _Kylo Ren,_ of all people, escape the _Resistance._ It was all so...backwards.

But as he rose to his feet, still wary of the knight before him, conviction took reign. He'd do anything to get Kylo Ren away. Anything. But in the same breath, he'd do anything to keep Rey safe. Would this act provide something for both ends of his personal spectrum?

_Probably not._

He stopped short, bracing against the wall from the lingering fatigue and residual pain. Even his legs shook under his weight. Like his escape from Star Destroyer, Finn would need a pilot. And there was only one pilot in the entire Resistance he trusted. But that same pilot wanted absolutely nothing to do with Kylo Ren. It would take some pulling teeth, figuratively, and much convincing before Poe Dameron would corroborate.

"Tell me something," said Finn, staring over his shoulder. His voice sounded stronger than he felt.

Kylo Ren, who was just behind him, stopped too. "Tell you what?" He replied.

"If I'm going to do this, " Finn explained, "Tell me you'll take care of her."

A moment's pause and then...

"Of course, I'll take care of her."

Finn was surprised, to say the least, that Kylo Ren even obliged him with a response. "Promise me."

Another pause, this time longer and it caused Finn to turn and make sure Kylo was even listening. Their eyes met and despite the shadows, Finn felt the man's glare. It was apparent he struck a nerve.

"That's very rich coming from the likes of you, traitor." Kylo Ren stated evenly. "I saw you leaving her on Takodana, so spare me the heroic chitchat, _FN-2187._ "

A flare of anger swelled within Finn's chest, but he bit his tongue while Kylo Ren continued to berate him.

"You could have been there for her," Kylo Ren made a contemplative _hmph._ "But you weren't, so keep moving."

It was getting harder to hold his own tongue, but the fresh clarity of Kylo Ren's power kept Finn in check. But then again, it was _Finn_ in charge of the current operation. Sheer spite took reign of his thoughts, but they extinguished immediately. Yes, so far Kylo Ren needed Finn. But without him, Kylo Ren would be a loose, rabid animal among the Resistant soldiers. Finn didn't want that. He didn't want to be responsible for unleashing Kylo Ren to the public. The man was already unstable now that Rey was disposed of. Who knew what else his manic episode was capable of, aside from breaking through four inch thick glass?

So Finn decided he would play the part; the messenger. The harbinger. Whatever the role would be coined. He'd get Kylo Ren off the planet D'Qar and away from Poe, away from him, and everyone else that could possibly be caught in the cross hairs. General Organa would be livid, he knew that. But what did she expect? That her little boy would come rushing into her arms as soon as she took him away from Snoke?

Finn scoffed, aloud.

The remnants of the First Order would be looking for Kylo Ren. Maybe even Rey. At this point, the Resistance's best course of action would be to send him away. Locking him up proved ineffective, which they would later discover. He could break cuffs, thick glass, and choke anything and anyone with a simple look, which he figured that out by himself. Finn shuddered.

"What?" Kylo's voice came as they continued down the corridor in silence.

"Nothing," Finn muttered, "Just thinking."

"Enlighten me."

Finn didn't want to enlighten him. He'd rather not talk to Kylo Ren unless need be.

"Or I can make you." Came Kylo Ren's voice a second time. Finn could feel a subtle pressure push against his temples. He rooted in place, sighing. He glanced sideways and over his shoulder. The faint pressure vanished.

"I hope I'm making the right decision." He explained. "That's all."

A muscle set in Kylo Ren's jaw.

"If you knew how I felt about Rey, you would think differently." There was a sort of vulnerability Finn detected in the manner of which Kylo Ren spoke. It was the first time Finn believed the words that came from Kylo Ren.

Silence came and the men continued to regard one another.

"You're right," said Finn, finally. "I have no idea how you feel about her. But I know how _I_ feel about Rey. And I want no harm to come to her."

"Harm?" Echoed Kylo Ren. "Sending her to Jakku was harmful. Taking her away from me was harmful." He paused, furrowing his brow in realization. "Oh, wait. You don't know."

Finn blinked, "I don't know what?"


	21. Chapter 21

"Rey's pregnant." Kylo Ren whispered carefully into the dim light.

The details were frivolous at this point.

"What?" FN-2187 spat incredulously. "With your-?"

"Yes."

It was the first time Kylo Ren had admitted such thing aloud. He wasn't sure how he'd feel about actually hearing it, much less, saying it himself. But it tasted..., _sweet_ and _dream-like_ _._ A reverie he would never need to wake from. Because it was all real and his. That is what Kylo Ren liked the most, that _Rey_ was _his_ and that they had created something together. From impenetrable darkness and blinding light, they had planted their own legacy in between.

In the waning shadows, Kylo could still see FN-2187's face pale from the news. The traitor opened his mouth, then closed it, blinking rapidly as if what he had heard was a trick of the mind and eye.

Before the rogue Stormtrooper could pick his jaw from the floor and find his voice again, Kylo Ren moved passed him.

The panel in which controlled the blast door was apparent. One push and the planet of D'Qar would scatter in an exodus of fear and disorder. Once they realized Kylo Ren was out of the cage, the alarms would sound and the battle stations would be manned. He imagined the chaos, but didn't revel in it. This would take too long fighting off the waves of guards and mechanics, and whatever else the Resistance used as soldiers. In truth, he was tired. Very tired. He could kill everyone at once, by a thought alone. But for the first time in years, he didn't feel like it.

The bleeding lacerations about his forearms and shoulders had slowed down substantially. He had clawed himself free when the startling taste of Rey's fear jarred him awake. Her cries prickled his skin. Her fear drove him mad. Slapping the glass and shouting did nothing. No one was to hear him while her screams, ricocheting in his head, were drowning and stealing the air from his lungs. A moment of stark blackness occurred, and when Kylo Ren regained his senses, the room was destroyed. He had done that. He had lost coherence and went madly against everything around him. Finally, the anger fueled a more powerful approach by using the Force. It broke the thick glass and he kicked and pulled against the sharp edges as if getting to her in time meant life or death. When his hands were too slick with blood to sustain purchase, he used the Force again to pry away the edges. He could have easily utilized the Force the entire time. But Snoke was watching, always. He could feel that scarred man drifting through the foggy edges of the Force, waiting for Kylo Ren to linger too long and pinpoint his location. They were bound together, much like he and Rey were. They both had to be careful. Luckily for Rey, her signal was not as strong for Snoke as it was for Kylo Ren. They had that advantage.

With so much having transpired, Kylo Ren reached up and slapped the access button, leaving a dark red hand print as a reminder of all he did to get to this point. The door hissed open to a windy, heavy downpour of rain. Beside him was the non-conforming traitor, FN-2187 glancing left and right. Up until recently, the knight was certain with how he felt towards the man; he hated him. But delving into his thoughts and memories proved viable in understanding why the man wouldn't give up and leave Rey alone. Rey _was_ wonderful. It didn't take a mind reader to discover that. But seeing from another's perspective of her brought a resolving conviction.

 _Yes, she was wonderful._ She was, also, his.

Stepping out into the pouring rain, Kylo Ren tilted his head back and closed his eyes. The rainwater traversed his shoulders in rivulets, rinsing away the blood and sweat.

"What are you doing!" FN-2187 gasped, grabbing Kylo Ren by the upper arm. He tried hunkering down and attempting to lure him alongside, but Kylo didn't budge. "People will see you! Don't you get it! You're supposed to be still locked up."

The traitor was right, but there was no witnesses around. The storm drove people indoors where it was quiet, dry, and most importantly, safe. Subsequent of a startling clap, a low and soft roll thunder resonated from the clouds. The rain sang louder, filling the surrounding grove with a soft hum.

"We should get to the hangar bays," FN-2187 said over the storm.

* * *

 _Of course_ , Rey couldn't sleep. _Of course!_

Lying along her back, she stared wide-awake into the overhead, which was, in fact, the bulkhead of the downed Walker tank. After tearing part her uniform and fashioning it to be more forgiving in the heat, Rey moved onto cleaning up the sand that encroached her private quarters. Amidst the cleaning and reorganizing, she found her quarterstaff, lodged in its rightful place, next to her bed. Then she found her sandboard, something she had salvaged from a Mon Calamari escape pod a few cycles ago. The dunes she had slid down using this smooth, metal sled were innumerable. Gripping it, she placed it near the door. She wasn't ready to give up her sasho stones just yet. She'll find something out in the deserts worth a few polystarch rations and veg-meat. And since she wasn't getting any sleep anytime soon,

Why not start now?

* * *

Together, Kylo Ren and Finn traversed the shadows undetected. How Finn was going to find Poe was another question entirely. He wasn't connected to Poe like Kylo Ren was to Rey. He had no idea where the damn man was. Above, the clouds churned and flickered with flashes of lightening. It was a terrible time to conduct an escape while abetting an enemy. But then again, Finn was never the type to follow the rules.

He had led Kylo Ren to the hangar bays.

From what Finn could tell, there was three Resistance squadrons, judging by the various emblems painted along their airframes. Up ahead, he descried a cone of light wash across the concrete. Slipping into the shadows with Kylo Ren close behind, Finn carefully drew near to the wall as the figure continued to close in. A rover of some sort. Maybe fire security. They had something similar in the First Order during night checks. If correct, than there was at least three officers nearby, manning the ready rooms. A series of standing lockers separated Finn and Kylo from the patrolling rover. On the other side of him was the star fighters, lined up side by side, facing out into the flight line.

A moment later and the rover passed without noting their presence, having now moved out onto the flight line to continue his rove. Finn allowed himself to breathe.

"Alright, let's go." Finn whispered, but as he progressed forward, he felt...

Turning at once, he realized Kylo Ren was gone.

Frantic, Finn jumped out from behind the lockers and wildly looked around. How did he just disappear! Finn's mind raced. Kylo Ren was loose now. Why didn't he stick with Finn like they had agreed?

Something caught Finn's eyes along the floor. Spots. Dark spots.

He followed the trickle of blood around and through a doorway that led him into a tiled corridor. The trail continued towards the right, disappearing behind another set of doors, which he also followed. A flight of stairs. Finn was convinced at this point by the bloody smears along the railing . With haste, he darted up the stairs until he found the blood leading to just the second floor.

Trying to be as quiet as possible, Finn drew the door opened and slipped into another corridor. Much like the one below, the floors were tiled but along the walls were large portraits he recognized as a chain of command.

_Officer's quarters._

Voices on Finn left diverted his gaze, ultimately locking onto the thick, bloodied shoulders of Kylo Ren. He was leaning against the door frame, blood slowly collected at his feet, with his back facing Finn. He rushed forward in hope he could get to Kylo before they both got detected, but it was useless.

Kylo Ren had found General Organa.

* * *

Sighing with irritation, coupled with a lack of sleep, Rey began her sweaty trek across the dunes towards Niima Outpost along her speeder. In her satchel, Rey managed to find several inverterlifts. If memory was correct, they were a portion each. That would cover her for a few days after she finished the pack of food Chewbacca had given her. Any long at it would spoil, unlike old Imperial rations like polystarch and veg-meant.

When she got there, the place was still a bustle of humdrum chatter and business. The world continued to turn, with or without Rey. It was comforting, to say the least. Despite her reluctant arrival, she knew Jakku well. In fact, at one point, it was _all_ she knew. Returning now felt like stepping into the past. She was so acclimated to being with Kylo Ren and his various trinkets and gadgets used for training or summoning food. The soft comfort he provided her in bed and wardrobe. She recalled mornings he had things to do, but didn't leave her side, stroking her hair with his fingers, ghosting her skin with soft, delicate kiss. Now she was back in the sandy, harsh heat of Jakku, scrounging for sharp parts in trade, and eyeing roasted Steelpeckers on skewers nearby.

One taste of such opulence and Rey felt spoiled. She didn't want to be here, covered in sweat and grim and gritty sand.

Sloshing and a foul stench diverted her attention towards happabore watering trough. The mammoth beast chugged and lapped at the dingy water fervidly. Nothing had changed. As her eyes ranged over the kiosks of shops and trades, familiar and unfamiliar faces met her eyes. Some lured away, tucking themselves behind curtains and salvage, staying out of Rey's sight. Others stared intensely, as if spotting a ghost or something worse. Perhaps her attire gave too much away. She knew the First Order was... well-known, but how well? And what did they know about the First Order?

Pushing it aside, Rey steered herself towards the most prominent trade post; Unkar Plutt's.

There was a line of scavengers waiting for their turn to bargain with the junk lord, but one look at Rey had them parting from her path. Sparing a few glances at their decision to stand aside, she moved forward confidently.

Unkar Plutt had disappeared into the back momentarily, but she could hear the thudding report of foot steps as he was making his return. Clearing the corner he spotted Rey and dropped everything he was holding onto the floor.

" _You_ ," he sneered, sticking a thick, fat finger at her. "What are you doing here? Where's my ship!"

Rey kept her bearing, allowing no reaction to betray her features. She'd forgotten that she'd stolen the Millennium Falcon.

"What does it look like?" She responded airily. "I'm here to trade."

He stepped closer. The entire metal shed shook with every burdensome footfall and he propped his frumpy hands along the counter top. The cage provided to separate and protect Unkar bounced on its tracks.

"There won't be any bargains made with the likes of you!" His deep voice rumbled. "Thief!"

"Thief?" Rey spat, dropping her brows into a cold glare. "That freighter originally belonged to Han Solo. It wasn't _yours_ to begin with!"

"No ship!" Unkar spat, "No portions!"

And with that, he slammed the steel overhead door closed and shut down the trade post for the day.

* * *

"Hello, _mother._ " The tone carried no inflection of love or adoration. It was cold and flat with rage simmering beneath such a calm disposition. It made Finn's stomach churn. He messed up. He _really_ messed up this time. He should have never went to the detention center, should have followed General Organa, tried to convince her to change her mind. But he didn't, and now the general knew Kylo Ren was out and about, deranged and blood thirsty.

"General, let me explain." Finn tried, but was met with the cold glare of the turned knight.

He rose a bloody finger and pressed it to his lips. "Shhhhh," Kylo Ren said softly. "No one asked you to speak, _FN-2187._ "

He returned his attention to his mother, still leaning against the door frame and creating a mess of dropped blood beneath him. It was nightmare come to life. Finn knew Kylo Ren was going to kill everyone and leave his mother for last.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Kylo said with such a soft voice, it sounded intimate, but all subjects knew better.

Finn swallowed thickly. General Organa was still too stunned to speak or move. Her brown eyes were wide and her lips were parted. Even her hands were frozen in place.

Blocked from entering the room, Finn knows there's more than just Kylo Ren and General Organa amidst the discussion. The way the general's eyes flicker to the left, as well as, how Kylo Ren occasionally divides his attention to his right, catering to an audience. There's multiple people in there and they are all going to die, Finn fears.

Heart in throat, Finn had little choice but to listen and, hopefully, react in time to whatever havoc was about to descend them all.

"Did you hear me?" Kylo's voice came again. Still low, still steady. He sounded tired. "Have you any idea what. You. Have. Done?" He closed the question, articulating every word in a solid delivery.

"Please," Finn whispered behind him. "I said I would help you, just don't hurt anymore-"

"Shut up!" Kylo Ren shouted over his shoulder.

Someone moved within the room, spurred into action by the slight distraction. But they had no idea who they were dealing with.

The general shouted, but her cry was cut short by the sound of cracking bones filling the innards of the domain. Finn's eyes dropped as a figure sank to his knees. His arms were down at his side, his face...

 _Oh shit..._ Finn felt his stomach roll, the burn of bile as it raced up his chest and spilled onto the tile.

The body slumped forward, landing along the tile in a lifeless heap with his head completely twisted around.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps, I should warn you guys? The story is going to get a little dark and a bit crazy. I mean really, we've got Rey and Kylo separated. I kind of have to go nuts! But in any case, I figured I should at least let yall know so you can go in prepared. Okay, away we go and please, enjoy!

When Rey turned away from metal shed of Unka Plutt's trade post, she met the reprimanding murmurs and scowls of witnessing traders. Her actions more than likely warranted an empty stomach for them and theirs. As she walked, remorse settled upon her, but she shook it off, eyeing the greasy steelpecker still roasting over an open fire. Her own stomach rumbled, that, and she was still very tired. She'd never felt this exhausted before, chalking it up as her depleted spirits now that she had _no one_ to trade parts for food.

Traversing the winding maze that was Niima Outpost, Rey returned to her speeder where she intended to brood over the newest transgression.

 _This heat._ She sighed, mounting the seat of her speeder. She sank down, resting her boots atop the instrument panel and crossing her arms loosely about her chest. She was tired and hungry. No trader here would conduct business with her because of Plutt and now _Plutt_ wouldn't either.

She huffed again, wincing as her empty stomach panged her. Absentmindedly, she ran the palm of her hand over her belly, still eyeing the charred carcass of the aforementioned steelpecker.

The things she would do to sink her teeth into one of those. Grilled steelpecker was a just a scavenger like the rest of Jakku, picking at metals that littered the dunes. They were dumb, obnoxious birds. Rey observed its slow, impaled rotation about the rod as the flames danced and lapped at its flesh. Her stomach growled again. She felt sick with hunger and a slight headache throbbed her head.

 _Damn,_ she was thirsty too.

From scorching desert, to a frigid planet, to a planet thick of greens, and back to a scorching desert. There was so much out there, Rey knew, and now that her wish had come true, she hated herself for it. Her hand continued to rub slow circles about her abdomen.

She sighed again, exasperated with it all. The devastation she felt when she first arrived had long passed. Now it was time to get back into the rotation of things, return to the hot sand and starship carcasses. Dropping her head back against her shoulders, Rey closed her eyes. Her quarterstaff was not far, lodged in the netting she fashioned to hang from the side of her speeder. She wasn't falling asleep, just resting her eyes. Should anyone encroach too closely, she'd thwack them across the head.

Even with her eyes closed, she could still see it; the steelpecker. The fire popped and whooshed and the rod turned on a rickety joint. Furrowing her brow, Rey tried to block it out. It was still morning and rather temperate, but not for long. When the sun peaked, so did the heat. She had about an hour or two before that happened then Niima Outpost would empty and every singing living thing would return to the cool shadows of their homestead.

Her stomach growled again, threatening to expel her empty gut of everything if she didn't fill it soon.

Frustrated, Rey sat up and hopped off her speeder and onto the burning sand. She stomped determinedly towards the Melitto's kiosk and his open fire.

Descrying her approach, the insectoid began to chatter in its native tongue, reprimanding her for coming over and bothering him. _Plutt's orders._ He claimed he _didn't want any trouble._

"I'll take two." She cut him off, pointing with a firm finger to the first charred carrion bird. "That one and that one, once it's done." There had been a fresh one placed over the fire, still raw and pink. At this point, Rey could eat both of the birds by herself, which she damn-well intended to do.

The Melitto cried, " _Please, no trouble!"_

Melittos could pass as human, if you were coming up from behind and they had their cloak drawn up. With shoulders, and legs, and pale hands with opposable thumbs. Sure, they could _pass._ But they weren't.

Rey glared into the insectoid's segmented face, devoid of eyes and a mouth, but it could still see and speak to her just as clearly as Rey.

"Plutt won't have to know." She told him, dropping the couple of inverterlifts she had found that day onto his counter. He waved his hands while frantically shaking his head.

_"No, no, no!"_

Rey felt her brow furrowing before she realized what she was about to do. She spoke with the Force.

"You will trade me these inverterlifts for those birds." Her voice low and smooth like velvet, eyes steady and smoldering.

The Melitto dropped his pale-green hands, muttering his response in verbatim to Rey's orders. He took the inverterlifts, cooked the remaining steelpecker, packaged both and sent Rey on her merry way. Unbeknownst was she that Unkar Plutt watched from the safety of his own metal trade post.

* * *

The bile stained his tongue and teeth and burned the back of his throat as Finn took labored breaths around another choking gag. His hands were propped against the tile and he was trying so hard not to see the image of the man with his head twisted backwards.

"Stop! Ben!" General Organa's voice came, a shrill note. "Stop this!"

When Finn glanced up, Kylo Ren was no longer leaning against the door frame but standing. His eyes were trained on the dead man at his feet.

"I can do much more, _mother_." The knight's voice shook,"Don't you want to see? Don't you want know what _your son_ is capable of?"

"Please!" She shouted.

There was tears strangling her voice as she cried. Finn couldn't see it, but he didn't have to. The anguish was palpable.

"Of course you don't want to see." Kylo Ren feigned dejection, ignoring all her pleas and apologies. "But I want to show you, anyway."

Another series of pops and snapping erupted and General Organa began to scream for him to stop. Dizzy, Finn clambered to his feet and rushed towards the frame of Kylo Ren. As if anticipating this, a hand shot out and stopped Finn short.

Then came the pain.

* * *

Rey tore into the birds as if she were a rabid animal. Neither savoring each bite, neither reveling in the thick, greasy meat and how the juice trickled down her chin. Nor did she participate in any of her rituals she would normally do with polystarch or veg-meat. Rey was far too hungry for that.

Now before her was a pile of bones, a couple of beaks and two pairs of talons. Behind her was the foot of her claimed AT-AT. The fairing of the foot provided a place for shade and plus, she liked sitting here, shielded from the harsh sun. At her side was her quartertaff, lodged into the sand and ready for her disposable.

The peaking hours had passed and now the locals of Jakku slipped out of their hearths into the hot sand. Across the way was luggabeast with a Teedo atop. They were traversing the height of a nearby dune. With his own staff in hand, spotting Rey, Teedo jutted it towards the dusty sky, and spewed a stream of profanities at her. The pace of a luggabeast was not fast. The beast of burden trudged, if anything, and with plates of armor hanging from its side only added to that incentive to take it slow.

Too sated and lethargic to deliver her own thoughts, Rey ignored him and diverted her attention elsewhere. Seeing this, Teedo shook his head and heeled the beast to move along.

 _Damn,_ she thought. Here she was, back on this dreadful planet, swimming in sand and haggling poor Melitto's. She'd hear about it tomorrow, certainly. The more she mulled over it, the more a sense guilt began to emerge. She shouldn't have done that. She shouldn't take other's will like that. But she was hungry, so hungry. What other antics would she ruse with her budding abilities? Would she read their thoughts, like she had Kylo Ren? Would she steal from other salvage trades with her telekinesis?

 _No,_ she concluded. That wasn't the person she was. She'd scavenge like the rest, trade like the rest, and fall hungry like the rest...

Scowling into the desert, Rey thought of Plutt again. The pivot of her problems. Things couldn't just go back to the way they were before, could they?

Rey spat into the sand, stirred with anger before wiping the sweat from her brow. She stood and yanked the quarterstaff free from the sand, heading into the belly of her Walker.

 _Yeah,_ she mused. _She'll hear all about it tomorrow._

* * *

Finn couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think. But he could _feel_ and feeling what coursed his veins and flooded his head was insufferable. Blood was on his tongue and in his eyes. It warmed his nose and trickled down over his lips. His head was going to explode. Yes, the pressure in his skull was surmounting, leaving no room to think or to breathe, only to suffer.

 _Make it stop!_ He pleaded internally, if only he could find his voice, manage it around the pain and say something but he couldn't. Kylo Ren was going to kill him and the general and after that, he'd move outside and kill the rover or the other officers. He'd kill the guards, and the mechanics, and engineers and fire control men. He would kill the navigators. The pilots! _Poe!_ He would kill everyone because that is what Kylo Ren did. He destroyed and pillaged and...

_OH GOD THE PAIN!_

Once again, he tried to staunch the agony. Around the field of his vision, a shade of darkness crept inward, drifting to and fro like a gentle tide. He _was_ going to black out.

_Oh the solace..._

The veil drifted closer, thickening and reaching the center. His eyes were closing..

He was drifting...

Succumbing...

Dying...

* * *

Leia's son was a monster.

 _Her_ son was a _monster._

She could't tear her eyes away or stop the scream that ripped through her. She was seeing her dead lieutenant twist in unnatural ways and even if she closed her eyes, the sounds! The bones were cracking, snapping under unseen pressure, breaking from an invisible weight. He was imploding in on himself and her _son_ was making it happen.

Telling Ben to stop was useless. He was lost now, consumed by the morbid acts he inflicted. Pressing a hand firmly against her mouth, she stifled the abhorrence. There were tears burning her eyes and she was thinking of Han and the connection was made. Was it true? Could Ben have been the reason for Han's death? Did she want to know?

Stepping away, her back met a neighboring desk as the bone splintering emissions continued until the flesh tore and freed slivers of bone. Blood spatter flung against the wall and floor while a pool of the thick, dark liquid crept out from under the mess of a man that used to serve General Organa.

Her lieutenant was now a human knot. Braided and twined together in a fashion no living human being could achieve.

When it was over, when the snapping and cracking ceased, Ben lifted his gaze. He was filled with so much hatred and pain, she could taste it. It turned the air stagnant and filled the marrow of her bones with lead.

"Aren't you proud?" His voice quivered. His eyes welling with tears. "Can you see me now?"

Leia nodded. Her tongue was mute, unable to find nor fathom the right words to say. Nothing she said would make a difference.

But she had to. She had to find something in her. Her son was slipping back, retreating to the shadows that had held him for so long.

"I've always seen you, Ben." She uttered carefully.

"Stop calling me Ben." He snarled. A window across the room splintered. Leia flinched.

Taking a deep breath, Leia opened her eyes again. She didn't feel as strong as she should. Ben was erratic, unpredictable, and very, very angry.

"I am sorry I sent Rey away." This was it, wasn't it? This why he broke free and came to her.

"Liar!" He spat. The tears were falling now. "My whole life you've done nothing but taking things from me and push me away!"

"I did not push you away!" She shouted back and this took her son by surprise, stunned him even. "I was only trying to help you! You are my son!"

Quieted, Ben's mouth twisted sourly. "Your son?" He beseeched, baring his teeth," Is dead like his father."

Leia grimaced. Yes, it was clear now. She was certain Han was killed by Ben, by their son. Her own tears came and washed down her face. Here she was, General Organa of the Resistance Army. And what a mess she had made. _No, not a mess,_ she realized. She had failed Han, the Force, Anakin, Luke, and most of all, she failed as a mother.

* * *

When Rey reached Niima Outpost the next day, the Melitto was gone. She'd come to right her deed by offering him several sasho stones, but his kiosk was empty. Not just of him, but of everything. All the hydraulic actuators, pumps, fuel lines, valves and reservoirs she had seen in his possession were gone.

Standing before his cleaned post, Rey glanced about. As she did, onlookers averted their gazes, pretending to mindlessly business with trinkets in their hands or muttering carefully under their breaths, too soft for her to make out what was being said.

Grunting in frustration, Rey knew who to blame for the missing Melitto.

Staff in hand, Rey marched to the metal trade post, shoving aside the lined up variety of species from her path until coming before the repulsive Crolute.

"Well, well, well," his pink lips jeered. "Have you returned with my ship?"

There was still a flurry of choice words from ranging dialects behind her. Casting a cold glance over her shoulder, they silenced at once.

Plutt began to chuckle.

Facing him again, a glaring Rey said. "What did you do with the Melitto?"

"What Melitto?"

"You know what Melitto!" She snapped. "The one who helped me yesterday."

Still chuckling, Plutt pretended to jog his memory. "Ohhh, _that_ Melitto."

"Yes, _that_ Melitto." Rey pressed. "Where is he?"

"Gone," Plutt told her. "Disposed of, I guess you could say. He needed to be made an example of."

"An example of?" Rey gaped. "What he did wasn't his fault. He didn't know what he was doing!"

Planting his frumpy, misshapen hands against the counter, Plutt leaned down until he and Rey were nearly eye to eye and said evenly, "No ship. No portions."

Rey narrowed her eyes and suppressed the urge to spit in his face.

"Alright," she chirped, changing to a light-hearted demeanor suddenly. "I guess I'll give these sasho stones to someone else then." With that, she turned on her heels and left. Fading behind her was Plutt throwing a barrage of questions at her back.

* * *

Reaching up, Kylo Ren ran his hand through his dark hair, combing the curls away from his face. Before him was Leia Organa, an emotional mess. But that is what he wanted. He wanted her to feel the conflicting confusion that had seized him from the time of his adolescence. He wanted her to see how damaged he was now, that her little boy was gone.

Kylo Ren had his own pain to deal with. Like Rey, he could feel Leia, but not because of a bond he had nurtured into existence. They were tied together, like Han was tied to him. That's how Kylo Ren found her. He felt her in the hangar bay while poor, stupid FN-2187 clumsily led the way.

Speaking of which, he glanced over his shoulder, spotting the traitor sprawled along the floor, incapacitated and quiet. He preferred it quiet.

"Mother," he whispered, very tired at this point. _That word._ He wasn't using it as a term of endearment. He thought of it as a knife, slowly seeping into his flesh. She was no mother to Kylo Ren. Maybe she was to Ben, but that child was gone. He made sure of it. "You have no way of knowing what you've done."

He watched her squirm. She was so uncomfortable around him, which came as no surprise. He was a stranger to her, and she, him. But she didn't fear him and that grated him immensely. If she were wise, she would be in fear.

Looking down, Kylo Ren saw the pool of blood finally reach the tread of his boots. He didn't move and it blossomed, spreading out along the edge towards his steel toe and heel. One of Leia's cohorts had charged him, unbeknownst of Kylo Ren's capabilities. He killed the man. He killed him in a manner he'd never done before. With the Force, he imagined the man imploding, surrendering to every bone breaking and joint collapsing. It worked.

"Rey," he whispered, coming back to the now. He reveled in the thought of her. It was hard not to. _Rey._ "She is the light."

Leia maintained her silence.

Shutting his eyes, Kylo Ren flexed his jaw. He was tired. Rolling his tight shoulders, he spoke again.

"I wish," he breathed, opening his eyes. Did he want to tell her? Did she deserve to know? No, he didn't want to indulge her with his most precious gift, but he had to. So she could see how awful of a mother she was and now, how awful of a grandmother she is.

"I'm to be a father," he croaked. As he said those words, the disarray of the room became more apparent than previously. All the blood. The mangled body. The echo of snapping bones and twisted necks floating in his head. He had done that. And now he _was_ to be a father. Rey would not like to receive him like this. She was pure and lovely and she would never hurt another.

Things would have to change.

It was only a moment of weakness, nothing else. He could change.

A voice whispered to him, soft and caring, pulling him from his Rey-filled reverie.

His dark eyes connected with Leia. She was talking but he was not listening.

Lifting a trembling hand, Kylo Ren made her hush.

"First," he licked his lips. His eyes were getting heavy and the exertion it took to kill that man had finally settled. "I want my lightsaber, and then you're going to get me off of this planet."


End file.
